New Game: Press Start!
by CrtAltDel
Summary: When Master Hand presses the Reset button, the resulting clash of information sends the world of Smash to a world with no Controllers… and no memories of what had occurred. A failsafe, however, has been placed. Two Smashers managed to avoid the Reset, but how can they fix this…?
1. 1x1 Press A!

**EPISODE 1x1:**

**PRESS "A"**

* * *

"Hurry!"

The voices of the Princesses chimed in the ears of the heroes. Princess Peach and Princess Zelda had been close friends for as long as they could remember. Their two kingdoms, though vast and different, stood tall and allied with one another through thick and thin, even in this dangerous time.

Princess Zelda was stepping forward first, her long brown hair held back in a loose ponytail, her pink gown getting dirty from the dirt of the tunnel they were travelling through. In her left hand was a lantern lit with a flame... in her right, wrapped up in a blanket, was a small, newborn infant. Shortly behind her was the blonde Princess Peach, her hair loose and falling before her face. Her similarly pink gown was also soiled with dirt at the edges, and in her hands was a book with a mushroom symbol on it. Zelda did not know the purpose of the tome, but she had been carrying it around with her since the fall of the castle in the Fire Emblem Hills.

Behind the two pink-garbed princesses and the infant, a short, stout man in a red shirt and cap and blue overalls was leading a green-garbed Hylian with dirty blonde hair. The four companions and one infant clearly had a destination in mind. The Hylian, Link, quickly glanced behind him to make sure they weren't followed. Mario narrowed his eyes.

"Are we almost there?" he asked.

"She said it was this way, did she not?" Zelda asked Peach in fear. "I'm afraid I've lost my way..."

"You turn right, soon," Peach said softly. "She wouldn't let us get lost - everything hinges on this!"

Together the group wandered down the tunnel before finally... they reached the end. There, surrounding a hastily made table out of steel and wood, was a group of people and beings. Samus in her armour, Captain Falcon the racer, Mario's brother, Luigi, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Kirby, Fox, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and then lastly, the young Ness, all stood at attention at the arrival of the two Princesses and their heroes. Though she had not been acquainted with some of them for very long, she was glad that they were all here for this event. It was important, and they had been the ones to step forward... It made sense. They were the Smash World's Original Twelve Smashers. Of course they would stand up against these forces.

"Princesses," Samus greeted, stepping out of her place to approach the four and the infant. "I'm glad you made it."

"You picked an odd spot for a meet, Samus," Princess Peach scoffed. "We almost got lost on the way here!"

"We're sorry," Fox assured with a grin. "It was sort of last minute, we know. This is the safest spot to do this, don't worry." Even with his reassuring words, Zelda couldn't help but notice that even with his arms crossed before his front, his gun holstered at his side was slightly loose - for quick and easy access.

"All else fails, we got Lowell upstairs with the mercenary and that red-head keeping watch for any freaks," Captain Falcon interjected, gesturing to the roof of the tunnel clearing. "I see you brought the kid."

At the mention of the child, nearly everyone present leaned in to get a view of the infant cradled in Zelda's right arm. She placed down the lantern on the makeshift table and fixed her grip on the child using both arms, before moving him so he was in view of everyone in the room. Peach cooed at the sight of the child, while Ness looked up in wonder. Everyone else's expressions softened, though in the case of Samus, it was hard to say.

"He's so adorable," Peach commented. "It's such a shame we have to do this."

"You're sounding like we're going to sacrifice him to the Hylian goddesses," Zelda said with a snide tone. "I'm glad that's not the case, I know Link's uncle would commit mutiny on our kingdom for that."

"Does he have a name?" Ness asked curiously.

Zelda was quiet for a moment, making everyone believe that no, the small infant did not have a name.

Samus sighed. "It's best if he didn't," she stated. "Naming something means gaining attachment. We're sending him away."

"I know..." Zelda paused before continuing. "But... he does have a name. Link's mother came from a small island out in the waters of Hyrule... We thought... if we were allowed... We would name after that small little island... Outset Hyrule."

Ness smiled at the name, leaning in closer to the infant and poking him lightly with his finger. "Hello, Outset, I'm Ness." The boy's eyes closed slightly, and Zelda wondered if the two of them were communicating. She knew that there was another psychic from the land of Earthbound where Ness came from who could communicate with the newborn young. Was Ness capable of that, as well? "It's nice meeting you!"

Samus, however, was a stickler for a schedule, and they were wasting precious time. She immediately stepped away from the child and wandered to the other side of the table, where she had been standing earlier. "This has to get done, that's enough of this dawdling!" She crossed her arms and stood firmly, clearly standing her ground from what was occurring.

The animals present immediately moved back to their spaces. Ness pulled away from Outset.

Zelda sighed and held the infanct close to her heart, terrified of what was going to be happening. This was her _son_, and not just her son, but Link's as well. She didn't want to say goodbye so soon after giving birth to him. Link placed a hand on her shoulder in support, and Peach stood at her other side.

Mario stepped forward. "Everyone is gathered. It's time."

There was a silence, a long and devastating one, before two people from the shadows of the clearing stepped forward. A woman and a man, both looking nearly identical to the other, appeared. White hair and dark eyes were their most striking features, with the female having longer hair parted to go down before her shoulders. Both wore dark cloaks, and strange and mysterious tomes in their hands.

"Are you prepared?" asked the man.

Zelda hesitated, but nodded all the same. "Yes."

A Pokémon now revealed himself - Mewtwo. An Angel stepped forward - Pit. The female of the identical newcomers stepped forward. Ness. The female began to draw a series of lines across the table with a piece of chalk. The drawing that she created was the symbol of their land - a circle, with an un-centered cross inside of it. Pit then took small candles from a pocket in his toga and placed them around the outside of the Smash Circle, while Ness and Mewtwo took out three strange objects - a crown, a needle and a wand.

"The Reset that Master Hand and Crazy Hand is doing is going to displace us all into a world with no Controllers," Mewtwo explained, turning to Zelda as the female fixed up the lines of the circle at the male's orders. "The one we are sending your child to has already escaped. Robin and Reflet will take care of the rest. Please place the child on the circle." A glance to the slightly panicked Reflet made the Genetic Pokémon rethink that statement. "... After Reflet is finished with it." A satisfied sigh was his answer and Zelda felt that if he would have bothered, he would have rolled his eyes.

Ness hummed a song to himself as Reflet finished up the circle, and Zelda cradled Outset. The infant wasn't fussing at all - she was proud of him. He was going to be brave, just like his father - courageous in the face of fear. She wondered what kind of child he would be when he returned to them with that woman that would be tending to his care for her. She hoped that her trust was well placed. This boy would one day be _king_.

"Alright, Princess," came the voice of Robin. Zelda looked up at him. "It's ready. Please place the child on the emblem, Princess."

There was a moment of silence. Everyone present turned to look at Zelda as she hesitated, drawing the infant closer to her. Slowly, however, she stepped toward the circle, giving it a close look. Reflet's job was perfect, even with the rushed lines and the sketched look. With clear regret in her eyes as they began to water, she kissed the top of Outset's head.

Though no one else could hear her voice, she muttered, "I love you, Outset... Know this." into the infant's tiny, pointed ear.

Her vision was beginning to blur from her tears, but she did as she was asked. Slowly, Zelda lowered her son onto the emblem before her, letting go of him for the first time since giving birth to him. It tugged at her heart that she wouldn't be able to cradle him like that ever again. This was her boy - and she had to give him to somebody else.

Mewtwo lowered the wand onto the infant's blanket, and then hovered forward. "The Reset is beginning, we must hurry."

"Wait!" Peach chimed, stepping forward. She lowered the book she had been guarding all this time next to the infant, leaning against the blanket. "I think he needs things from home to help him along. This will be from me, Mario and Luigi."

"Oh for-" began Samus, but she didn't get to finish.

"Pika!" chimed Pikachu, hopping forward and leaving behind a Spell Tag on the infant's blanket. Clearly, that was the token from him and Jigglypuff.

Ness went into his bag and took out a small stone. "This is a Sound Stone. It has two melodies saved on it - mine, and my older cousin's. I think he'd like for me to give Outset this." He placed it right near the Spell Tag, his brave face faltering for just a moment. When they met again, Outset would be old enough to be Ness' classmate.

Captain Falcon, without a word, took out a small electronic stick. Without even explaining himself or what it was, he placed it near the Stone and the Tag. Donkey Kong placed down a small nut. Yoshi added in a coin that had once been the currency of the Mushroom Kingdom. Fox looked down at his outfit before sighing. He took off his headpiece and broke the eyepiece off of it, placing it down on the infant as well. Link took out of his Ocarina, gifting it to his son, passing it down just like it had been from his own father. Kirby took out a Star Rod as an offering.

All eyes looked to Samus.

"This is ridiculous," she voiced. "He's not going to know who we are. What's the point of all this?"

"It would help him along," Fox offered.

Samus seemed torn for a moment. Then, silently, she took off her helmet, revealing for the first time her blonde hair that hid underneath. Setting aside her helmet, she summoned up from seemingly nowhere, a journal tied shut with a leather strap. Opening it, she quickly scribbled down a few passages on the front page, before setting it down next to Peach's book.

"... This had better work, Fox," Samus stated. Her expression was stern. "If these tokens don't help him alongside, we're all doomed to that fate."

Fox said nothing.

Reflet and Robin immediately opened their tomes after everyone had placed down an offering and began to flip through the pages, as Mewtwo's eyes glowed. Green magic began to surround the infant like the branches of a tree, wrapping lovingly around him like his mother's hold had been earlier. Zelda watched as her son was slowly enveloped in these branches, before sucked slowly and seemingly into the very table he had been laid on. Where her son had once been, there was now Reflet's drawing - etched away from use, the scratches her chalk made all that was left behind.

For a moment, just a moment, there was silence.

Then, Zelda was curling into herself, falling to her knees. Her hand went up to her mouth as she sobbed, tears flowing down her face. Everyone around her watched as she mourned the loss of her son's childhood, except for Link, who rushed to her side. Though he was trying hard not to show it, everyone else could tell that he was feeling the effects of what they had just done as well.

"I wish there had been another way..." Reflet commented to Robin.

"There wasn't..." Peach replied, having overheard. "Regardless, the Reset is here."

And there wasn't anything they could do about it.

Their mourning didn't last for long. Before ten minutes of Zelda and Link huddling each other as they cried over sending away their son, the world around them began to break apart into 1's and 0's. The Reset had reached them. Soon, there wasn't even the group standing there anymore.

* * *

_Twelve years later..._

* * *

Someone was moving into Vidchester.

Maxwell Handson stared at the "Sold" tag sitting there on the "For Sale" sign. In his perfect little town, nothing moved forward. Everything was frozen in an infinite loop. It was basically the same day repeating over and over. That is, until today.

"Good morning, Mr. Handson!" chimed a voice, and Maxwell turned to see the source. There, before him, was Robin and Reflet Scale, the pair of odd twins that lived down the road. It was Robin that had spoke. "Fascinating, isn't it? We're getting new neighbours!"

"Aren't you the least bit concerned?" asked Maxwell. It was wrong - it was a curve ball in his perfectly orchestrated baseball game. He hated it. It was unexpected. Everything had been going fine for twelve years. "I don't like surprises, all of you know this."

"Well," Reflet began. "You never know. They might turn out to be nice."

And with that, the twins were gone. That was fine with Maxwell. The least amount of time he had to speak with those two freaks, the better. It gave him more time to work out who was moving into Vidchester. The sooner he found out before the newcomers arrived, the better. No one could figure out the secret of his little town.

Not without his consent.

* * *

_Kid:_

_Everything hinges on you.  
__Don't trust anyone. Read this book carefully._

_Everything I've learned about our world is in this book.  
__Don't falter, don't screw up. See you in twelve years._

_\- - - Samus_

* * *

Ever since he was little, little Outset "Toony" Sirius had tokens.

That was what his Mama Rosalina said they were, anyway. He asked her once where he had gotten them, and she did her little humming thing before saying they were from people who loved him very much. Of course, she said that one of them had been from his father, and he tried to work out which one it was, but he couldn't. One day, he asked her who Samus was, and she gave him an odd look before quietly saying...

"... She was a friend of the family."

Out of all ten of the things she said had been Tokens from his birth, only one had a name from the giver. The storybook had a little, "_To the cute newcomer!_", but no "from" written in it. There was an old slip of paper with strange writing on it. Mama Rosalina had explained that warded evil away. The stone, sometimes, when he held it up to his ears, gave off eight verses of music, but sometimes it played a quieter tune, nothing like the other one. There was a strange stick with electronic bits in it, but Outset didn't really mess with it in case he broke it. And, some of the stuff was just plain, like the nut, or the coin. Mama Rosalina had told him that the nut could grow if he planted it, and the coin was ancient currency, but he figured he'd wait before planting the nut.

They were moving soon, after all.

There was a broken screen in his collection, too. It wasn't cracked or anything, but it had clearly been a part of something else once. A strange star wand that sometimes shined when he held it was sitting on his shelf. What stood out the most was the blue ocarina with the strange tri-triangle on the mouthpiece. Mama Rosalina taught him how to play a few simple songs on it, and sometimes he just liked to play the lullaby for fun. She had told him, after all, that it was the favourite song of his real mother, the one that had given birth to him.

... But the one that seemed the most important was the old journal from Samus. It was the only one that had a name in it and it was filled with pictures and words unlike the old storybook his Mama Rosalina read to him every night. Inside that book, told the story of another world. A world where video games were _real_, and considering that video games were already really cool (though a lot of them lately, from what he understood, were remakes), then that was really cool. In fact, he hoped that Samus' words were really true, because if they were...

... His mom and dad were _Zelda _and _Link. _Mama Rosalina often told him that his parents had been important, but she didn't know what he knew. Well, actually, he had a feeling that she knew. After all, they were moving soon, and Samus' parting words in her little message was: _see you in twelve years_. Soon, he'd be twelve.

He doubted it was a coincidence.

* * *

Things were changing in Vidchester.

Maxwell Handson watched in anger from the street as a moving van moved furniture into what had once been the forever empty home. He turned to watch a group of young children run off, screeching with glee. The Lowell boy wandered aimlessly with that mercenary and the redhead. A young couple sat at the bench, terrified to make a move in public. An elderly-looking man left his home with his children.

It hurt just to watch. No longer would this predictable, every day routine be a _thing_. If the newcomers were who he thought that they were - and he was certain that he did - then this was bad news. Time would flow forward now. He didn't like it.

* * *

"Hello!" came a voice, and Outset turned immediately to the source.

Standing before the new boy was a boy in a striped shirt with a backpack. He must have been heading home from school when he had stumbled upon their moving van. His hand was outward toward the newcomer, trying to pass off as friendly and a new friend. The smile was certainly welcoming enough on its own. "You must be the new neighbours! I'm Ness! It's great to meet you!" He was standing next to a brunette with a blue and white shirt with bright blue eyes.

Outset put down the box carefully, before straightening and turning toward Ness. He gave a smile as he took the offered hand. "Nice to meet you, too. I'm Outset Sirius."

Something clicked in Ness' head. The name 'Outset' turned twisted, like it was trying to unlock something. Ness blinked, for a small moment. Then, a laugh came out, no recognition in his eyes at all. "Welcome to Vidchester! I think you'll like it here." Ness then gestured to his friend next to him. "Go on, introduce yourself."

The other boy acted flustered for a moment. "Ah, but... Oh, fine." He held out a hand too, which Outset immediately took. "What's up? I'm Rock."

"... Rock?"

Rock laughed. "My dad's a big music fan. Got an older brother named Blues and a twin sister named Roll. Our cat's even Tango." At Outset's blank look, Rock gave a small smile. "Get it? Rock and Roll?"

"Oooooh!" Outset blurted out. "Now I get it!"

Ness gave a laugh. "So, do we even need to ask what school you're going to?"

At that, Outset tilted his head slightly to the side. "I'm going to Polestar Elementary, I think."

Rock and Ness highfived. "Sweet!" They both chimed in unison.

"That's where we go!" Ness finished.

Rock then checked his watch and slightly panicked. "Yikes! I got to get going! My dad expected me five minutes ago!" He turned and started running down the street, waving goodbye. "Catch you later, guys!"

"Bye!" Outset and Ness called out.

Ness smiled, beginning to walk backwards. "I'll catch you later too, okay? It's nice meeting you!" At that, he turned and began to run down the street, heading home.

... But then, all of a sudden, he stopped, a slightly confused look on his face. He looked up at the sky, wondering why he felt this way. All of a sudden, like a shining light from a spotlight had suddenly lit up the dark side of his brain... He gave a big smile. With that, he ran down the street once again, his laughter chiming through.

"_We got new neighbours!_" he called out to the world. "Things are starting to _change!_"

* * *

_Authoress' Notes:_

This concludes the first "Episode" of "Season One". Any questions or concerns, please post in your reviews or PM me directly. I will be more than glad to answer any and all questions! Any suggestions of "families" or characters that you would like to see, also post in your reviews or PM me directly. This marks the beginning of something new for me, so any help will be greatly appreciated.

_Interesting Info:  
• _Toon Link's name being Outset is more or less what I call him when speaking of him with friends. We also call Young Link "Kokiri". It helps us differentiate between them.  
• Mama Rosalina is exactly who you think she is.  
• Maxwell Handson is Master Hand, obviously. For a fun fact before he appears, Crazy is named Christian.


	2. 1x2 The Beginning of a Hero

**EPISODE 1x2:**

**THE BEGINNING OF A HERO**

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Outset's new room was big enough to put all his Tokens on display.

He felt that it was necessary, since they were all things that, according to his Mama Rosalina, had been given to him from people that had loved him. He had already planted that small nut in a pot on his windowsill. He was excited to see what it would grow up to be. The blue ocarina sat next to it, and the old tag was now tacked onto the back of his door. The coin had found a place on a shelf, and the old storybook was now resting on his dresser, alongside Samus' journal. The stone was on his bedside table, the stick in a jar with the broken off screen. The last thing that needed a place was the star wand.

Holding it in his hand, Outset thought to himself on where a good place might be. Eventually, he decided it should go with the coin, so he placed it next to it and called it a day. That was enough decorating, he figured.

"Hey, Outset!" came a sudden voice, and he peeked outside his window to see Ness and Rock on the front lawn, alongside two brunette children. In Ness' right hand, he held a baseball bat. "Can you come out to play?"

For a moment, Outset hesitated. "Let me ask my Mama!"

With that, he turned on his heel and rushed out his bedroom door, carefully stepping down the stairs to find her in the kitchen, putting plates away. She turned to him curiously, doing her humming thing all the while, and tilted her head. Clearly, she was waiting for him to speak.

"Mama Rosalina," he voiced. He stepped up a bit. "... There's some neighbourhood kids waiting outside, wondering if I can come out and play."

Rosalina curiously turned away for a moment, peering out the window. "... Ah... Outset, I must speak with you first about something. You do... know why we moved here, do you not?" She turned to him fully again. "... I told you that your parents had to give you to me for safety. In truth, we are not from around here. We're from... somewhere else."

"Samus said, in her book, that we're from... a Game World, or some kind," Outset realized. "Do you mean that those kids out there are from video games?"

Before she even said anything further, Rosalina took a moment to grab the top of one of the kitchen chairs. She sat down in it before Outset and took hold of his hands, holding them tightly against one another. "So am I... and so are you. You were born there. There are bad guys in games... and one of them Reset our world and sent everyone here... except for me, and except for you. We are the wild cards, Outset. We can wake everyone up from their slumber, that's why we're here."

"They don't know," Outset realized.

Rosalina nodded in response. "If your room is done, you can go outside and play with them, but remember that we have a job to do - we have to save them."

"I will," Outset said, determined to do his part. He grabbed a hat from the rack that his Mama Rosalina had already placed there, and headed out the door.

She watched him for a moment, before returning to her work.

Ness was waiting on the sidewalk with Rock and the other three children. When they heard the door slam from Outset closing the front door, they all turned at the source and gave a wave. Ness cheerfully crossed his arms and laughed.

"There you are!" he chirped excitedly. "I brought Rock and some friends over for you to meet, too! I figured, the more the merrier, you know?"

Outset took his attention to look at the three newcomers. Rock was standing next to a blonde girl with her hair held back in a ponytail, wearing a red dress. She was smiling just as brightly as Rock was, in fact, nearly identical. The two brunettes next to her were similar in appearance to each other as well, their eyes chocolate and wide, and wearing simply jersey tees. One was a boy with his hair in a bowl cut, the other was a girl with her hair in a perm. She also had a pink streak going down the right side of her bangs.

"So!" Rock began. "I want to introduce my twin sister, Roll." He put a hand on her shoulder and looked between her and Outset. "Roll, this is Outset! Outset, this is Roll."

Roll held out a hand, which Outset took. "It's nice to meet someone new for once!" she voiced. "The town doesn't get many newcomers."

"I heard we're the first in a while to move in," Outset commented. Roll gave a nod in confirmation.

Ness moved like a snake to stand in between the two brunettes, and put a hand on the male's head. His baseball bat rested on his shoulder. "Now, Outset! This is Yu and Ai! They're my next door neighbours! They live with their... aunt and uncle, right?"

"That's right!" chirped the male brunette. He smiled at Outset brightly. "I'm Yu, by the way. Ai is my little sister."

Ai scoffed. "Geez, you're only ten months older than me!"

Ness slammed between them so he was in front of them, smiling brightly at Outset. "We wanted to take you around town and show you around! We figured it'd be a cool introduction."

Outset considered this. On one hand, he wanted to make new friends and he figured Ness and his friends was the best place to start. On the other hand, Samus' words to not trust anyone... "... Sure. I don't know my way around yet after all."

"Yay!" squealed Roll, causing her brother to block his ears at the pitch. "I'm so excited!"

"Awesome!" Ness laughed. "Ready to _rock and roll _guys?!"

"_Hey!_" chirped the insulted twins, turning to Ness immediately. He gave no reply as he began to laugh hysterically, holding his stomach from the force.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

The hero was in trouble.

Tied to the machine, there was no way that he could possibly get out of this trap that the villain had set up for him. It really seemed that the villain would get away with burning the confederate building, stealing all that gold, and capturing the girl. Everything that the hero had worked so hard to achieve... was all going to for nothing for the remainder of the three pages left. And Ness would have to wait for next month for the next issue.

Just as it ended in a cliffhanger, Ness flailed over his bed and groaned in annoyance. He stuffed his head in his pillow and moaned about the unfairness of cliffhangers in monthly comic books. A sudden booming sound, however, caused him to look up at his window in curiousity.

"... What was that?"

He got up from his bed and rushed to the window, looking to the outside from his blinds. A blazing ball of fire was streaking through the sky - and it landed right on the nearby hill. It was a meteorite!

"Oh, how cool!"

Immediately, Ness got up from his bed and rushed out his bedroom, down the stairs, and past his mother hollering at him to slow down. He didn't listen as he flew through the front door, out into the world of Earthbound. The grand trees stood taller than his house, the grass was as green as green could get, and the starry night showed the ships and the Observatory hovering over head. The World of Games was vast and wide, brilliant and unique. The paths to Onett, however, were swarming with the Onett Police Department, who were well-known for their fast responses to accidents and incidents, and their quickness in putting up police barricades.

Onett wasn't where he wanted to go, though.

Ness rushed along the path of the mountain, stumbling past police, other townspeople, and a stray dog. He was almost at the top when he stopped suddenly, as a woman stood there before him. Or... at least... they looked like a woman?

Standing tall before him was someone who was not from Earthbound. They must have been from somewhere else - with that blue hair, and that crown, and that mask, they looked like they belonged maybe in the Fire Emblem Hills, but it was hard to tell. The mask blocked their face from Ness' view, and when they turned to look at him, he stumbled back at the sight of the sword in their grasp.

"... You should not be here," they said. The voice that came out was feminine. "You should return home."

Then, she turned and walked away. Ness stood there, flabbergasted, but huffed and wandered back anyway. That is...

"Pokey?" he asked, stunned.

Yes, indeed, Pokey was wandering around the paths, calling out a single name. He stopped when he heard his name, that is, and he turned to face Ness with his face like a pig and his blonde hair blocking his eyes. "Ness! How wonderful it is to see you!" He stepped up to Ness quickly and chuckled. "Oh, how amazing it is to find you! You see, Picky had wandered off, the little brat. I think he went off to go find that meteorite that went boom through the sky."

"Well, I can't even get close. There was this strange masked woman," Ness explained. He faltered and raised a thoughtful brow. "At least... I think she was a woman."

"Then we just have to avoid her!" Pokey insisted. "If my parents gets home and he's not there, they'll say it's my fault, and it's not my fault that Picky wandered off."

Ness didn't even bother to comment at that. He just looked at his friend with an exasperated expression that he hoped would explain his discomfort and disbelief with those words. Not to mention how irresponsible Pokey was as a big brother anyways.

"Come on, Ness, I'll make it worth your while eventually," Pokey insisted even further. "Just do this for me, _please_. Picky could be in lots of trouble right now!"

"UGH," Ness voiced. "Fine!"

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Ness and his friends were very helpful with showing him all kinds of the neat areas around town. They showed him the ball park where Ness played baseball, the church, the school, even the mall where Ness explained the games store was. Finally, they stopped at a fast food restaurant, where Rock and Roll stepped inside and came back out with bags of food for everyone, both looking generally chipper. Outset figured they knew someone who worked inside and were glad to see them. Sitting around a table, the group of friends and Outset ate in silence for a moment, enjoying the greasy food.

"So, I thought maybe," Ness said through bites of a hamburger, "that we could go to the arcade after this."

"Where's the arcade from here?" Outset asked.

"It's down the street from the police station!" Yu spoke up. "Ai and I go there all the time, they have this sweet old Pac-Man arcade game." He and Ai shared a high five. "We rock at that game!"

"Got the pattern memorized!" Ai finished.

"Wow," Roll commented, taking the straw from her drink out of her mouth. "That's... something to be proud of, I guess?"

"Of course it is!" Ai insisted. "We've got the highest score on that machine!"

"_You guys _are Yai?!" Rock exclaimed. "That's... wow!"

Yu and Ai looked quite proud of themselves for a moment. Outset was pretty sure that flowers should have been sprouting nearby purely from the looks of glee that they had. Rock looked impressed and slightly annoyed - maybe he was trying to beat their score? Meanwhile, Roll looked generally unimpressed. Ness, meanwhile, laughed out loud before voicing an opinion towards the two of them.

"I should have known!"

Ai took one final fry out of her container and bit into it, clearly enjoying the taste. "Anyways, these fries are amazing!"

Outset nodded in agreement as he picked one up to eat as well. "Yeah, I haven't had fries these good from a fast food restaurant before. Back in my old city, they always were either way too greasy or salty."

Rock and Roll looked proud of themselves for a moment, something that Outset thought was kind of odd. "Well, of course they're amazing!" the two said in unison, giving each other a high five. Rock finished the statement. "Blues made 'em!"

Roll gave the other children a wink. "He's the best fry maker at Fast Wario's, you know."

"Oh yeah!" Ness exclaimed cheerfully. "Blues works here!" He turned to Outset gleefully. "Remember when you first met Rock? He mentioned Blues. Blues is their older brother, he's in the ninth grade and works here part-time. He's a pretty cool dude. He's got good style."

"The sunglasses!" Yu said with a sigh. "His sunglasses are amazing!"

Outset looked over at the Yu and Ai, confused. "Sunglasses?"

"Blues has sensitive eyes," Roll explained. "They're sensitive to light so he wears sunglasses all the time except when we're at home, since our curtains are always drawn."

"_Anyways_," Ness interjected. "Arcade, guys. Are we doing it?"

"Sure!" chirped Yu and Ai at once.

"We need to top our Pac-Man score!" Ai finished.

"We're in!" Rock jumped in, Roll giving an agreeing nod. "Blues doesn't want us home alone, so we've got a few hours to kill."

Ness gave a nod and turned to Outset. "How about you?"

Outset hesitated. He wasn't too sure - he didn't know where the arcade was from here just yet, and he didn't know how to get home from there either. If he trusted these guys - and he know that he should - then he was certain that they'd take him home after they were done. But... there was Samus' advice. _Don't trust anyone_. He trusted only his Mama Rosalina, knowing that everyone else was from video games, but didn't remember who they were. Any one of these kids he was talking to could be a villain. Ness... he was obvious. Earthbound.

But Rock? Roll? This Blues they mentioned? He didn't know who they could be. For all he knew they were from western-styled game he had never played and they were really a group of sibling bandits going around killing everything. Yu? Ai? Masters of Pac-Man? Maybe they were two of the Ghosts.

"Um..."

His hesitation was all the answer that Ness needed, and Outset knew it. The disappointment in his face was all the answer that he got, as he turned to Rock and Roll and made plans on what games they were going to play. Outset quietly ate his fries.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Pokey was relatively annoying after long periods of time. "You know, Ness, I can't believe that Picky would run off like this." They took a few more steps forward. "I mean, usually, he listens to me and doesn't go running off into the blue." Ness looked back with a look of annoyance. "In fact, typically, he lets everyone know where he's going when he leaves the house."

"... Pokey."

"Furthermore, Ness, I think my little brother reached his rebellious stage and I'm not kidding, I really wish I was," Pokey continued. "He's starting giving this sort of glare whenever our mom berates us, and it's funny watching her reaction because it's this cold, death glare, you know?" He paused. "Maybe he's turning _evil_."

"Pokey, I doubt he's turning evil," Ness interjected. "I think he's just getting tired of your parents' crap."

"Ah, true," Pokey agreed.

They stopped at the base of the hill, and went up against the edge, trying to keep out of sight. They knew that woman from before who told Ness to stay away was most likely still around the area, so they had to be careful as they continued their search for Picky. They kept low and crept around trees, and when they did stumble upon her, she wasn't facing in their direction so she was easy to dodge. They ran into a few stray dogs, but Pokey was able to get them to scram with some beef jerky he happened to have on him.

Eventually, they reached the top of the hill, where the meteorite was.

"So, this is where you think Picky might have gone?" Ness asked, just to be sure. "You're absolutely positive."

"He's always watching the sky with that telescope, Ness!" Pokey insisted. "I'm absolutely, one hundred percent, completely and totally, no doubt in my mind whatsoever, positive that this is where Picky went!"

Well, if Pokey was positive.

The two approached where the police had set up a barricade. There was an opening in it that they could get through, so they stepped through and wandered up to the meteorite. It was glowing an eerie golden red colour, and hovering around it was Picky himself, his blonde bowl-cut nearly covering his eyes.

"Picky!" Pokey exclaimed, rushing off toward him. "There you are! Don't wander away when I'm in charge!"

"Oh, Pokey," Picky commented. "I was worried you got lost!"

"I didn't! You're the one that did!"

Gee, Ness thought to himself. It was starting to look a lot like a different scenario had played out than what Pokey had initially told him. What else was new?

Ness approached the two brothers, ready to tell them that maybe it was a good idea to get going now before that woman found them, when something began to hover out of the meteorite that had landed on the hill. All three turned towards it in complete awe, as what came out was what appeared to be a small, black bug.

"What's with the bee?" Pokey asked.

"A bee..." said the bug. "... I am..." A pause. "... Not."

The three boys watched as the bug flew around the meteorite, as if assessing the damage that it had sustained in the crash, before it hovered towards them, Ness in particular. He jolted back for a moment in shock and fear, not entirely sure what was going on, before the bug started up once again, to speak.

"I come from ten years in the future," said the Not Bee. "In the future, disastrous events have taken place thanks to, in part, Giygas, the being of pure evil. In the future, everything is in ruin. But, there lies a legend among my people, a legend of the Chosen Four, who with the power of friendship, love, and wisdom, can defeat Giygas and save our world. There are in this tale, four of these Chosen ones: three boys, and a girl."

"Three boys?" Ness wondered.

"Aw man, I better not be one of those four!" Pokey exclaimed.

The Not Bee went quiet for a moment. "Ness, I believe that you are one of these four." The Not Bee hovered near his head. "You may call me... Buzz Buzz, I suppose. See, in the future, everything is ruined. If you work hard, grow your power, collect the eight melodies from your sanctuaries and become Earthbound... working alongside your friends, I feel that you can save this world from the turmoil and devastation that Giygas will cause with his strength. Forgive me for that long sentence, but we are pressing for time."

Ness paused. He was destined to be a hero of this world?

"This is ridiculous!" Pokey and Picky both exclaimed, ruining the entire moment.

"Ness, go stop that guy!" Picky added.

"Yes!" Buzz Buzz agreed.

"Yes..." voiced a fourth voice, and everyone turned to the source. From the shadows stepped a tan woman with white hair, wearing armor that was... relatively alarmingly revealing. She wore a mask that covered her upper face. She showed a hand, which had a gauntlet that gave her the appearance of having claws. "Yes. Ness, stop that guy."

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

The pages of Samus' journal were open and in perfect view. His Mama Rosalina flipped through all the pages, looking between them in awe and in slight disapproval of what her friend had done. After upsetting his new friends with not wanting to go the arcade, Rock and Roll had suggested that they at least drop him off at home before they all wandered to the arcade to kill some time. He had gone inside immediately and told his Mama what Samus had said, and then showed her the journal. Every story that Samus had taken part in was written down in the book, every story that she had heard, written down in their words, and most all, everything that she knew.

"She was quite..." Mama Rosalina voiced softly. "... Thorough."

A page turn later and they were both greeted with Ness' story. The tale that Ness had explained was written down, the words greeting Outset quite clearly. There were some hand-drawn sketches clearly based off of second-hand accounts, detailing Ness standing before a meteorite with two other boys and a bug, a woman standing menacingly before them. The sketch was very detailed.

"... I see Ness was unfortunate enough to run into Cia," Mama Rosalina stated after humming for a moment. "Why are you showing me this, Outset?"

"Samus' beginning words said not to trust anyone, and not to mess up," Outset revealed. "I flipped through it a bit before we came here, and I was a little confused... because... How can I not trust a good guy?"

"You should trust those that you meet," Mama Rosalina decided. "Trust is part of breaking the Reset - it's a very important piece of the puzzle. Ness is one of the Original Twelve. You can trust him."

"Then why does Samus say I shouldn't?"

For a moment, Mama Rosalina was very quiet. She closed the book carefully, keeping it on her lap as she closed her eyes thoughtfully. Outset could tell she was thinking through her words very carefully, and he wondered if she had any nice things to say about Samus. "Samus..." she began, "... was not a very trusting individual. She was always quick to push people away and keep them at arm's length. I believe it is very much a miracle she left you this token." She flipped through the book some more, curiously looking through the pages. "Don't worry about her advice, Outset. Just be yourself; make new friends, explore the town, and get to know everyone that you meet. If you have your doubts, just look through this book, and see for yourself who they were before."

Outset gave a nod. "I guess I should go apologize to Ness and the others, then, shouldn't I?"

His Mama gave him a smile. "... That would be the appropriate action, I believe." She closed the book and placed her hands on the cover, keeping it on her lap. "Are you going to go do it? Or are you going to take care of it tomorrow at school?"

He thought about it for a moment before smiling. "I'm going to take care of it now!" With that declaration, Outset immediately stood up from the floor and began to leave, turning back only once to say, "Thanks for the advice, Mama Rosalina!" And, then he was gone.

Rosalina watched him with a smile. Once he was gone after his new friends, she looked down at Samus' journal and hummed for a moment. "I think you offered the most important thing of all, Samus..."

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

The woman stood there, menacing and clearly trying to act as innocent as she could. Her mask and her clawed gloves, and her choice of her wear, did nothing to make her seem on the good side at all, and Ness was not in the least convinced. She gave a laugh and pointed a clawed finger at Buzz BUzz. "I heard you would try and stop us... Oh, how right those rumors were. You dare try and cease our operations?!"

"You destroyed the world as we knew it!" claimed Buzz Buzz. "I am only trying to save it!"

Picky and Pokey immediately hid behind Ness, who muttered, "I wish I brought my baseball bat."

"You should keep one on you at all times from now on!" Buzz Buzz chided. "People like Cia are hard to bring down. From this moment forward, you're a target, since you can stop everything in the future from ever occurring!" He buzzed as menacingly as he could, and yelled out to Cia, "The future is changed! Everything will be the way it should have been!"

Cia laughed. "Please... you couldn't stop me if you tried...!"

She charged a ball of magic fire, and threw it toward the group of three children and one bug. Before any of them could react, the ball of fire met instead the blade of a sword. Ness' eyes widened at the sight - it was the masked woman from before, who had told him to head home! He gave a gasp of astonishment as she straightened in her stance, wondering how she had managed to get here so quickly.

Cia was similarly shocked. "_What!?_"

The woman pointed her blade before Cia. "You attempted to harm children! Tell me before my blade meets your heart in battle, who sent you here tonight?"

There was a moment of silence aside from the buzzing coming from Buzz Buzz's wings. Cia seemed shocked to even be asked the question, and she mocked astonishment, and being insulted both at once.

"Well, now, aren't you sharp in the tongue?" Cia voiced, her voice mocking. "You want to battle, Fire Emblem girl? Then let's have a _war_." She charged another spell and launched it toward the swordswoman. "You won't be able to defeat me! I'm the Hyrulean Sorceress of Time!" She launched another one, and another, and one final burst of flame.

The swordswoman dodged the attacks rather skillfully and went in for a strike with her blade, which was quickly parried with a strike of what appeared to be a staff that doubled as a whip. They traded slashes and deflects with these weapons before Cia launched the swordswoman back with a strike of heavy magic. The swordswoman was thrown back to nearly where the people she was protecting were, her mask flying off her face.

"Ah, so you are Lucina!" claimed Cia. "I should have known. You've been a thorn in my side since you teamed up with that... that _ruffian _who thinks he's a pirate!"

"He was right to redirect my path of vengeance for my father!" Lucina stated, standing up and pointing her blade toward Cia. "He was right about you! He's not a ruffian nor is he a pirate!" She tightened her grip on her blade. "I will avenge my father and I will protect these children from your evil ways! The future is not written, nor is it set in stone!"

Cia sneered. "So..."

"Ness! Quick!" Buzz Buzz exclaimed, flying away. "Time to go!"

"Go!" Lucina urged. "I will fight her to the end."

Ness grabbed Picky and Pokey's hands, and together they ran off after the bug from the future. It was best they left, for safety and quick.

Lucina's blade quivered as she narrowed her eyes at the sight of Cia. "What is this power...? Who is helping her...?"

Cia merely laughed.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Outset stepped into Fast Wario's. He had been on his way to the arcade when he had realized that he didn't know the way there. He was hoping to at least catch sight of Rock and Roll's brother, and ask him for directions. If he wasn't busy, that is. It was quite crammed inside the burger joint. There were a number of tables, some yellow and some purple, that were situated in strategic locations, surrounded by blue chairs. The tiles were all white, and at the counter, two cashier tills sat in wait of someone to order, with a bored looking young man with a black mustache. The name on the name tag said his name was 'Luigi'.

He looked up with slight disinterest when Outset reached the counter. He straightened, as he had been slouching against the counter tapping his fingers, and prepared to take an order. "How can I help you today?"

For a moment, Outset hesitated. "Um... I'm looking for someone who works here?"

Luigi straightened. "The manager?"

"I don't know," Outset answered. "I just know his name is Blues."

At that, Luigi's eyes momentarily narrowed, but he did turn and leave the counter to double to the back of the restaurant, most likely to where the office was. Soon afterward, he returned to the front of the store, a small teenager with a pompadour and a rather largely brimmed visor on.

"That's him, there, Blues," Luigi explained, before he retreated to deal with the fries for one of the waiting orders.

Blues stepped up to the counter. He looked remarkably a lot like Rock, if it weren't for his pompadour and his slightly squinting, extremely pale blue eyes. "Can I help you?" His voice was curt. He gave Outset a slightly confused look.

"Um... yes," Outset voiced. "Your brother and sister were here earlier... and they said you worked here... Well, I wanted to know how to get to the arcade from here."

"The arcade?" Blues seemed even more confused at that. "They said they were going there already, didn't you go with them?"

"Um..." Outset shook his head. "No... I had to go see my Mama first. I don't know the way there, though, so..."

Blues seemed slightly torn at that, until Luigi stepped up. "Hey, don't worry about it if you want to walk him there, I'll cover for you. Wario's not here till 5 anyways."

At that, Blues gave a nod and turned back to Outset. "I'll meet you in the dining room shortly. Let me just get my stuff."

That led to Outset sitting down at one of the dining room tables, soon met with Blues donned with a yellow scarf and a set of triangle shades. He got up immediately and Blues led the way out of the restaurant and down the street. He was the quiet sort, clearly - the cold, silent and brave type, no doubt. It made Outset wonder who he was in the previous Game World, and made him want to flip through Samus' journal to see if she had known anything about him before. Maybe there were mentions of Blues' siblings, Rock and Roll, too.

"Here we are," Blues suddenly said.

Outset looked up to see the "8-bit Arcade" sign flashing above them. "Thank you!"

Blues crossed his arms. "Tell my brother and sister I expect them in the house by 3, okay?" With that, he walked back toward the restaurant, waving goodbye.

Outset waved back, even though the boy's back was turned toward him, and he stepped inside the arcade to see many video game consoles flashing lights and making noise. In the back, he could see Yu and Ai hovering around that Pac-Man machine they had been gushing about, Rock, Roll and Ness watching them in astonishment.

"Aw, man!" Ness exclaimed in surprise as Outset approached. "And they're still on their first quarter!"

"They weren't kidding when they said they had the pattern memorized..." Roll said in shock.

Ness turned just in time to see Outset, and gave a great grin upon seeing him. "Oh, Outset! You came!"

"Huh?" chimed Rock, who turned as well. "Hey! You found your way!"

Outset gave a nod, coming in closer to watch Yu and Ai with their game. "Yeah, I got directions from Blues. He's... nice." Rock and Roll laughed at the words. "He also said he wants you two home by 3."

"Aaaw!" Roll complained, while Rock sighed and shook his head with a smile.

Ness laughed, and turned to Outset, holding out his hand that didn't have his trademark baseball bat. "Anyway, glad you changed your mind! Welcome aboard to our gang, Outset!"

"Thanks," Outset said, taking the hand. Both shook more strongly than they had before, Rock and Roll watching with smiles, and Yu and Ai shouting words of encouragement to the newcomer from their game of Pac-Man.

For a moment, Ness paused as he looked at Outset curiously. Then, he leaned in closer to one of Outset's slightly pointed ears, and whispered in a small tone that Rock, Roll, Yu and Ai couldn't hear: "... Aw, man. You've gotten _big._"

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

"I can't believe it..." Ness voiced. "I'm destined to be a hero!"

"Yes, yes!" claimed Buzz Buzz. "If all goes well, you'll save the world, and the future!" He buzzed around Ness' room curiously, checking out all the things he had, even observing the comic book that Ness had been reading earlier that night. "The future was catastrophic - there were cities falling to the ground, buildings that had decayed... but with you, teaming up with your three friends that you haven't even met yet, you can save that future and make it the way that that it should have been!"

Ness stayed quiet, sitting down on his bed in curiousity. "Would you be able to show me the way? To where I need to go?" He was still nervous. He'd never been out on an adventure of this grand a scale before. Sure, he'd walked from the house to the nearby woods, and even walked all the way to his cousin's house... but this was travelling all over. "I don't even know where to start."

"Luckily, one of the Sanctuaries for you is nearby," Buzz Buzz pointed out. "Giant Step is just by Onett!" He buzzed away from the bookshelf toward Ness. "I can lead you the way the best I can, but you have to understand that it's been a while for me! Onett hasn't been in one piece for me in a while."

"So Onett gets destroyed?"

"Oh, yes!" Buzz Buzz explained. "Everything is basically gone. Poof! Vamoose!"

Ness pouted. "I hope I can prevent it all..."

"Oh, no worries!" Buzz Buzz hovered near his head. "I'm positive that you can handle it! I have complete faith in you. All we need now is the other four Chosen ones and then that's all! Off to Giygas you go... and the world is saved! How hard can it be?"

Even with those words, Ness wasn't too sure, but he smiled at Buzz Buzz all the same. He stood up, grabbed his baseball bat, and donned his cap. "... Then let's get started!"

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Lucina stepped through the woods, carefully and determinedly. She had lost sight of Cia sometime ago. It was not something she was proud of, but she hoped that the children had escaped and were not in clutches any further. Besides, she had other goals in mind. She had to take out all of Cia's group, not just her.

"... You seem quite lost, Lucina," came a voice, and Lucina looked up immediately. There, in the tree, stood a man in a hood. "Are you...?"

"I discovered something... strange." Lucina paused, trying to word it. "She has more power than he had before. There's someone we haven't put into consideration. There's someone giving her a further strength. It was powerful... it pushed me back."

"You traveled two generations to the past to fix a broken future," stated her friend in the tree. "Things are beginning to change. We should be prepared."

* * *

_Authoress' Notes:_

"Ready to Rock and Roll!" Where else can you write that and have two characters get so mad at getting called out, except for Mega Man and SSB fanfiction?

_Interesting Info:  
• _It took Outset two days to decorate his bedroom. It took me five weeks to do mine when I moved.  
• "Yai", the name that Yu and Ai use on the arcade machines, is a reference to Yai from MegaMan Exe.  
• Edit: Yu and Ai are _not _the Ice Climbers.  
• When you do mash-ups like Once Upon a Time did, sometimes characters take someone else's roles from them. In this case, Lucina plays the role of the police barricade that prevents Ness from visiting the meteorite the first time. Cia plays (the very early) role of the Starman that attacks Ness and friends at the path before his house.  
• Just a notation you all should keep in mind: Both Rock and Roll mention Blues, their older brother, but neither mention Dr. Light. Rock mentioned him previously in the first chapter, as a music fan. The fact that neither of them mention him in this chapter, but mention their older brother, is very important to keep in mind for the upcoming Chapter 4, which focuses heavily on the three of them.  
• Buzz Buzz gets to live just a teensy bit longer because of his ability of Plot Exposition.  
• Don't even try to ask me who the one in the hood is. He's due to get revealed soon.

_Reviews:_

Reader: Congratulations on the first review! I'm glad that you felt that the characters were in character. For some of them, I honestly don't know enough on their games and how they act (I'm looking at you, Captain Falcon.), so I drew up my own conclusions based on what I _did _know of them. Thank you for telling me all that you did - it drive me to write more!

C-C-ComboBreaker: Thank you for your compliments on the plot! I hope it continues to interest you.


	3. 1x3 Mother of the Cosmos

**EPISODE 1x3:**

**MOTHER OF THE COSMOS**

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

The pancakes were placed in front of Outset the minute he sat down at the table. Rosalina had to smile to herself as she watched the young prince blink his green eyes tiredly before beginning to eat the food that was offered, and she stepped away to allow him time to wake up. It was a Saturday, so there was no rush to hurry this morning, and it was a nice change of pace. It could give her time to investigate the town and see if she could find Outset's real parents. The sooner she found a way to wake them up, the better.

Princess Zelda had been most worried about this part of the plan, if Rosalina recalled.

As she cleaned up the kitchen, Outset munched away at his pancakes. Once he was a bit more awake, he looked up at her curiously.

"Mama?" he voiced, and she hummed in response. "Remember Thursday, when I went to the arcade with Ness and his friends?"

"Yes... If I recall, you showed me Samus' journal," she commented. She remembered flipping through the hand-written pages, telling the large amounts of stories that the bounty hunter had collected over the years. She had flipped through it some more last night, having stumbled upon the page declaring that Samus had run into a mercenary that went by the name of Snake.

Outset gave a nod. "... I woke up Ness."

Rosalina immediately stopped what she was doing and turned to him with a soft smile. She moved to sit down across from him at the table. "Then I must say, congratulations. That's the first step!"

"He told me that I am so big now," Outset said. "He was there when I was sent to you; he told me all about it." She loved that he seemed so excited about his first victory, and she couldn't help but feel it, too. Their first priority should be the Original Twelve and whoever they found that they could trust, and then working towards the rest of the resistance group that had stood up against Master Hand as he reigned terror against the rest of the world.

"If I recall right, he gave you a Token, too," Rosalina added as she set her mind away from her thoughts and more on the conversation. "I'm pretty sure it's the Sound Stone. Queen Mary told me all about it once - it has the ability to record three songs on it. The one that you have, has two." She tapped her fingers against the wood of the table in thought, trying to remember the ones that were on it. "Maybe you can ask Ness about the one that he gave you."

"That might be a good idea!" Outset agreed. "Maybe we can wake up Rock, and then the three of us can work together to help you wake everyone else. Mama Rosalina, can I do that today?"

"Of course," Rosalina approved, and she watched with a smile as his face lit up.

However, before she could voice something else, she was interrupted by the phone ringing. Immediately, she frowned and got up to go answer it. It was odd, considering that no one really knew their number yet - not even Outset could remember the sequence of numbers yet that they had been given. The phone that she purchased sat in the living room on a side table next to a large couch. She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear, but before she could speak, she was interrupted by a voice she didn't want to hear.

"_Greetings, Rosalina,_" came the voice of none other than Master Hand. Rosalina felt her blood stop. "_I was hoping the two of us could get together today and have a discussion regarding your sudden appearance in Vidchester. Here, I was thinking that you had dodged the Reset completely, that you'd raise the little boy out in the wild of this World and never come to interrupt my perfect world._"

"Quite the contrary," she shot back with a curt tone. This was not what she had desired to experience today. "That was not my agreement with the others and Princess Zelda. Now... Where would you like to meet?"

"_My home rests on the western side of the town, just nearby the school your little boy goes to,_" Master Hand stated. "_I expect you shortly, please come as soon as you are ready._"

Rosalina stole a glance at the picture that sat near the phone. A five year old Outset smiled back at her, with a birthday cake. "... I'll be there as soon as I drop Outset off at his friend's."

Master Hand hummed back an agreement at her, and she couldn't help but feel a slight wave of panic. What should have been a wonderful, perfect day, was now crashing before in flames and destruction. This was just _wonderful_.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Princess Peach, last Rosalina had seen, had been taking part in one of her Kingdom's royal tournaments. Typically, the Mushroom Kingdom hosted many sports competitions and games, and Princess Peach always participated. Rosalina didn't always participate, but she always spectated. It was an important affair to attend as Princess Peach loved the support, and she rarely got to see Rosalina as it was. This time, however, she had previous engagements, and so she resorted to using her Observatory to view the sports tournament taking place this year.

It seemed Princess Peach was winning this race, and a smile found its way on her face.

"She's doing quite well this year, Rosalina," commented Polari as he hovered nearby. She hadn't even heard him enter the room. "I'm sure you're quite pleased with her."

"Of course," Rosalina commented, watching the race closely as Toad came up close behind the Princess. It was a close finish.

"Anyways," Polari voiced as he approached. "... You have guests."

Rosalina turned away from the view of Princess Peach passing the finish line on the track, raising a hand in the air in triumph. "Oh, and who would that be? I wasn't expecting anyone to visit. That star has created some problems, and..."

"It's Pit," Polari interrupted. "Pit, and Dark Pit. They told me that Palutena sent them and it's an important matter. That star may just have to wait, Rosalina, I'm sorry."

For a moment, Rosalina frowned, and hummed to herself as she turned back to the view of the race. With a small wave of the wand that sat in her hand, the view disappeared and she stepped away, heading toward the main area of her observatory. Sure enough, there stood the Pit twins, their arms similarly crossed. Dark Pit looked about as bored as he always did, while Pit was glancing around in curiousity. She reminded herself that this was their first visit, and Palutena must have given them some directions on how to get here.

"... Boys," she greeted. "I've been told that Palutena sent you...?"

"Yeah," Dark Pit confirmed, turning to her immediately.

Pit stopped his glancing around and dropped his arms to his side, clearly trying to appear as professional as possible. His change of stance set Rosalina on edge - usually he was slightly informal and very personal... if he was trying to separate himself from the situation, then this was big. "Palutena summons you to a meeting that's been scheduled. Master Hand requests your audience at the Final Destination, alongside Palutena, Hylia and Queen Mary. There's one other coming, but I can't remember her name..."

"Whatever the case, she'll be there," Dark Pit said with a roll of the eyes.

"A meeting? What is it for, does Palutena know?" Rosalina couldn't help but feel just a small bit of panic rising inside of her. Master Hand rarely called attention to anything, though he was a tyrant that everyone knew. The Original Twelve of their collection of what they called Smashers had been a thorn in his side since the very beginning. If he was requesting an audience...

"Whatever it's about, it can't be good, it's Master Hand after all." Dark Pit's words only added more to the panic she felt.

His following laughter as he turned to leave the Observatory left a bad taste in Rosalina's mouth. She wondered to herself what Palutena was thinking, sending him here with his twin to tell her of this meeting. Pit rubbed the back of his head and apologized openly about his brother's behaviour, but even with that, Rosalina was still worried. A meeting among the Four Greats of Nintendo with Master Hand, plus one other, could never be anything good. Deep inside, she couldn't help but think to herself that something was terribly wrong, and that this entire meeting might just be a trap.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Downtown Vidchester was not truly a Downtown sort of area. For one thing, the stores were all small and old fashioned, and the arcade carried only the oldest consoles she had ever seen since New York's oldtown area. Rosalina hadn't wanted to use her vehicle for something as trivial as going to Master Hand's home in Vidchester, so she had decided to walk. If Outset could do it, she could as well, and it wasn't like Vidchester was large. After walking for hours in New York City, it felt like a walk down the street.

There was a flower shop that was just opening up its doors and setting up some arrangements alongside the length of the store to make it attractive. There was no mistaking the mop of hair that sat on the clerk's head, and Rosalina stopped as she stared at Pit - wingless, toga-less, and circlet-less - as he arranged daisies, lilies and roses in an attractive manner. It was startling.

"Oh!" Pit voiced as he stood up straighter and smiled at her brightly. "You must be the one that just moved in!"

"That's right," Rosalina answered, stepping up. "I'm Rosalina Sirius, I just moved in with my son."

"Rosalina," Pit tried, playing with a rose in his hand. "I quite like that name. I'm Pitwell, Pitwell Icarus." Pitwell turned to place the rose in one of the arrangements. "I work here for Marth Lowell. I go to Vidchester High on the weekdays."

"Ah, so you're a part-timer, then," Rosalina offered. "My son goes to the elementary school."

"It's a nice school, though he might find that locker my brother graffiti'd in our last year," Pitwell said with a laugh. "Darkwell's sort of, destructive, I guess. He has been ever since our parents died about five years ago. We've been in the care of Marth ever since."

Rosalina halted for a moment. It was hard to remember that these people would not be the same as she remembered them. Their stories, as they knew, were tragically so far and different than the ones they truly lived, and she worried about some of the placements. For one thing, there was Zelda and Link, which she was so determined to find for the benefit of the boy that lived under her roof for twelve years. He deserved to know his true parents, after all.

"Just out of curiousity..." she voiced, looking at Pitwell carefully. "Do you know anyone in the area with the name... Palutena?"

Pitwell gave her a blank look. "No... I can't say that I do. Is that person a friend of yours that lives here?" As he spoke, he turned back to his arrangements, trying to figure out where to place the rose that he had been playing with. "Darkwell might know - he knows a lot of people that live in town. I can ask him for you and when I see you again, I'll let you know."

Rosalina bit her lip in worry. "No, no... that's alright. It's a small town, I'm sure I'll run into her eventually..."

Pitwell gave her a nod, and then a goodbye, as he stepped back inside of the flower shop that he was working in. Rosalina waved in response and continued down the street, holding her hands in worry. Pit was no where near being ready for awakening. He was so convinced that everything that he knew was fact... and perhaps, it was for the better. The Reset had taken away his wings, and most likely Dark Pit's as well. It made her worry - just what had happened to everyone who didn't fit the criteria for this world? What had happened to Yoshi, to the Pokémon? Did she even want to know?

Whatever the case, she had a meeting to get to that she didn't even want to attend.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Some of the Lumas had refused to let her leave the Observatory without them. Rosalina didn't want to be late for this spur of the moment meeting, so she had relented and allowed them to join her, resulting in her appearing with Polari and about twelve other differently coloured Lumas trailing after her. Palutena, standing tall with her staff in her hands and flanked by Pit and Dark Pit, had given her a curious look upon her arrival, but the Mother of the Cosmos just did her best to ignore it. She focused instead, on the others present.

Hylia was standing as still as a statue, dressed in a simple pink dress that she had worn some odd thousands of years previous. Every once in a while, she would take that mortal form again and marry into the Hyrule family tree, bearing the next Zelda intended for the everlasting war that the land of the Legend of Zelda saw. Last Rosalina had checked, the most current Zelda that Hylia had given birth to was turning of age soon, but had turned down every suitor her father had suggested. Hylia had told her that she was proud of her daughter's actions. Rosalina had just figured that Zelda was showing her rebellious streak she had inherited from her mother. Today, Hylia was joined by a Goron and a Zora, flanking her expertly and appearing as stoic as possible for the two species. Rosalina didn't recognize either of them, but they were there to spectate and protect Hylia, not to include themselves.

The beautiful and immortal Queen Mary was clearly disinterested in the situation. She stood with her eyes darting across the floor, with clearly something on her mind. Truthfully, Rosalina had always pondered the decision that Hylia had allowing Queen Mary into this court, then she remembered the knowledge that the Queen bore. Magicant was a land that was formed from her mind, and Queen Mary knew a number of songs that could save the world if given the opportunity - and at least one of them had. Today she was flanked by two small boys, one being her great-grandson Ninten, and the other being Ninten's albino friend Lloyd. Their inclusion was an odd decision, as typically Queen Mary brought two of her royal attendants with the white sack masks on their faces. Perhaps today she desired friendly company.

The last member of the court made Rosalina give a sort of double take glance. Amaterasu was present for the first time in over a century. The great Sun Goddess sat there before the great pedestal with vigor and presence - her beautiful white fur marked with the red markings of her heritage. A stone slab of great power was hovering by her surrounded by harmless flames, and she narrowed her eyes at the sight of Rosalina arriving and stepping into the room. She bowed her head in greeting, and then faced forward, going quiet. Clearly, she had decided to come alone, as it was just her today from Capcom.

If Amaterasu was here, Rosalina suddenly felt under-dressed.

With a loud crack, a great white right hand appeared before the court. Master Hand had arrived at Final Destination. He waved around the group, as if making sure that all five were present, before floating down on top of the pedestal that Amaterasu was sitting in front of. There was silence, and then the Hand spoke, his voice transmitting into their mind with Telepathy.

"_I am pleased that you have all arrived,_" spoke the Hand. "_I shall now discuss my plan. I wish to punish your precious Smashers, for the things have ruined my reign._"

Amaterasu gave a bark at that, and soon her voice joined his in their heads. "_The Smashers are not my domain. To what reason do I have to be here?_"

"Quiet," Palutena voiced, and stepped forward, her staff pressing down into the ground. "Master Hand, be reasonable. Forgive the Smashers for doing their job! You were punishing those under your command - the poor Wireframes and Polygons were a simple, innocent existence until you stepped up and turned them into Alloys!" She huffed, clearly annoyed of what Master Hand had done. "They simply removed them from your order, for you ruined their lives."

Hylia spoke up as well. "The actions of the Original Twelve were _warranted _and _appropriate_."

"_I created the Wireframes, you are forgetting!_" Master Hand argued. "_They were my creation and my creation alone - the things had no business butting into what was mine! For that, I wish to strike back with something harsh and unforgiving, just like the things were. I come to you today for what you think I can do against the things that harmed me._"

"You think we can...?" Rosalina began, before she went quiet. This was insane.

The court went silent. Amaterasu, who usually only spoke once in a court anyway, laid down and decided to take a nap, clearly believing that this had nothing to do with her. She gave a great big yawn, deciding to make that her point, and closed her eyes, just as a little green bug popped out of her fur and began to bounce on her head, as if trying to wake her back up again. Palutena crossed her free arm across her chest, disgusted with Master Hand.

"I won't be aiding you in this endeavor. You can count me out of this... this mission of yours! The Goddess of Light, Palutena, wishes to have no part in the endless destruction of the Smashers, or the Original Twelve. Do it on your own."

Pit and Dark Pit approached her, as if preparing to physically restrain her in case she decided to attack the Hand right then and there. Rosalina didn't blame her. Ninten and Lloyd stepped before Queen Mary, as if preparing for an attack from the Hand. Several of her Lumas floated before her as well, and deep inside, Rosalina herself knew this situation wasn't going to defuse any time soon. Master Hand was clearly furious, and wanted something to target the Smashers directly.

When no one spoke for a while, Master Hand twirled to face the world below. "_It is very important that I get your aid today. I have feeling that those things of yours are going to plan an attack against my land, to destroy everything that I have built up to today. I want to protect what is_ _mine, you know of my goal to have a perfect world!_"

"... Perhaps..." began Queen Mary, speaking up for the first time in the entire meeting. Everyone turned in shock before the blonde Queen, standing there in her pink dress of eloquent design, the two small boys at her side. She closed her eyes and held her hands close, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Perhaps a Reset will suit you best."

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

There was no doubt about it - this house was the house she had been called to. The elaborate front yard was eloquently landscaped, and the front door alone looked like it cost quite a bit of the World's form of currency. On the porch, there were two large, wide columns that went up to the roof, acting as support. The door had a knocker designed to look like a right fist. If that wasn't suspicious, then Rosalina could resign being the Mother of the Cosmos.

She knocked, preferring to use her own hand as opposed to the one offered. It didn't take long for Master Hand to answer.

Existing in this realm had changed his appearance significantly. He had gained a humanoid body, the hair on his head black and greased black. His eyes were wide and beady, and his tuxedo was white with a black tie. He gave Rosalina a grin that made her feel slightly uneasy, and he stepped back to allow her inside of the home. "I'm glad you made in due time. I was starting to get worried."

"I did dawdle, but decided that it would be unwise," she shot back. She stepped inside of the home and glanced around at the lavish furnishings. Clearly, Master Hand had given himself and his brother a decent life here in the town. "You wished to talk about my arrival?"

"I had been under the impression that you had escaped to spare the young Prince of Hyrule," Master Hand explained, leading her away to a living room with red velvet couches. "I hadn't realized that you intended to bring him here. What exactly are you planning, Rosalina?"

Something deep inside made Rosalina feel that this conversation was... wrong. Still, she sat down across from him, crossing her legs daintily underneath the dress she had chosen to wear. She gave him her famous blank stare. "It was an agreement with Queen Mary and Princess Zelda. However, it is none of your concern, I assure you. You walked right into her trap just as everyone else did."

"Yes, I'm afraid the immortal Queen Mary got exactly what she wanted in the end, didn't she?" Master Hand commented, appearing quite pleased despite the circumstances. He leaned the side of the couch and rested his elbow on the arm of the chair, putting his hand against his chin. "Needless to say, this entire thing was orchestrated by her at the end of the day. You're here for the boy's parents, aren't you?"

Rosalina gave a nod despite not wanting to. "Yes. It was what we agreed on. I return him to his rightful parents, everyone can return to their lives as normal as here demands."

Master Hand gave a hand wave. "Well, then I guess there's not much I can do about that, is there? I suppose I have no choice but to just let you go about the business that you've agreed to with the Immortal Queen and the Princess of Hyrule."

At those words, Rosalina paused, tilting her head to the side in wonder. "You're... just going to let me do this even though it will destroy your plans? I was under the impression that this was to get back to the Smashers for what they had done to you and your land. That is what you said at that meeting so long ago."

"It might have been once, what I wanted to do," Master Hand commented. "But one family's already been destroyed by what I enacted, ripped to pieces by that little button that I pressed. I can't rip a boy from the family that he so deserves and should have had." Rosalina watched his face carefully, seeing the genuineness of his words. "It won't mess with my perfect world if I add in a few more edits than I've already made."

"... A family's already been torn apart? Yes, the Hyrules," Rosalina stated.

"No, no, not them," he corrected, giving another dismissive wave. "It was unintentional and unexpected. They shouldn't have even been there but they were. When I realized that they were here, I felt awful - so I rewrote what the Reset had given them, and that way they can have a home together as opposed to what they were doing before." He must have noticed the horrified look on Rosalina's face, for he then gave her a calm smile. "Don't worry, they're fine now. My brother pays for their home's expenses."

"... Which family was that?" She hoped to everything that it wasn't a family that she knew.

Master Hand didn't give an immediate reply, and when he did finally speak, it was a different topic altogether. "Now, Rosalina, onto business. You have just moved here to Vidchester and finding a job here is relatively difficult as no one here has changed careers for twelve years. I suppose what I can do to aid you in caring for the boy until you find his parents, is offer you employment."

"Working for you is the last thing I desire," she admitted.

He gave her that calm smile once again. "Oh, you won't be working for me per se. My brother has an old building nearby the schools that he keeps a bunch of writing and printing equipment. Now, the town has a newspaper - but it hasn't printed since the rise of the town. We need a simple column, a simple informant paper of things that have happened and things that will." His smile turned slightly wider as he gave her a close look. "And, I happen to know you like to tell stories."

Rosalina gave a nod. "My Lumas... they loved them."

"Well, how convenient, wouldn't you say?" Master Hand stood up then and checked the clock. "Now, my brother is due to be there shortly, and I have some work I need to get done. I'm glad we had this chat, Rosalina. Do consider what I have offered and call my brother some time today to confirm." He pulled out of his suit's outfit, a stack of business cards. He flipped through them before finally pulling one out and handing it to her. "His number."

Holding the card tightly, Rosalina examined the name to see that Crazy Hand was going by Christian Handson here in Vidchester. She supposed it made sense. A name like Master Hand and Crazy Hand wouldn't have fit well among the people here. She stood up and shook his left hand. "... I'll consider it. I'd have to get a babysitter for Outset, however."

"There's quite a few people living here in this town, Rosalina," Master Hand stated as he led her to the door with a smile. "I'm sure you'll find somebody."

Rosalina stepped through the door and watched it carefully as it closed. She put a hand to her chin as she wondered why that conversation just felt so odd.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

"What were you _thinking _telling him of that?!" Palutena asked, furious. She was marching up and down the entire courtroom, everyone present following her movements with turns of their heads. "This marks you a traitor, to all of your kind, to all of Nintendo!" She reeled, turning sharply to begin her walking down the path she had created once again. "You've gifted Master Hand with the power of destroying the entire land within the vicinity of that... that thing that you created!" Clearly, Palutena would be fuming this for thousands of years to come. "I still don't know what was on your mind when you created a thing that could reset the system of this world!"

To discuss this matter, the five had stepped into the courtroom without their guides and escorts. That meant that it was just the five of them here in this room, with four of them fuming at Queen Mary, yelling at each other, or simply standing watching the entire show of Palutena pacing back and forth as she berated the Immortal Queen of Magicant.

Amaterasu suddenly barked to get everyone's attention, and once she had it, her voice greeted their minds. It was just as furious, just as angry, and just as annoyed. "_You do realize that if your little Reset button affects Capcom in any way, shape, or form, then a third Company War will begin._" She stood up from her chosen perch up on the Judge's booth, jumping down into the area to face everyone directly. Rosalina stepped back mostly out of fear, worried she would strike at any point. She looked that angry, which was odd, for usually she appeared tranquil and kind. "_My world has a divinely fragile species that does not have a soul - the great Dr. Light has created a form of special life, able to learn and grow, but not able to exist in a way that you understand. If this Reset impacts that life... I will be very angry with you._"

Palutena turned to face Queen Mary once again. "See what you've done?! See?! Now there's a threat of a third Company War if that life gets impacted thanks to your misguided attempt to shut Master Hand up!" With that, she slammed her staff into the floor, and a loud cracking sound of the staff meeting the wood echoed through the room.

"Oh, will all of you just stop, please?" Hylia spoke up. "You're making my ears ring..." She stepped up to the center to match herself with Palutena, Amaterasu, and Queen Mary. "We need to stop the fighting and just try and solve the issue. First: Queen Mary, what in Nayru's name was that?"

Queen Mary sighed. "I have my reasons."

"'Course you do!" Hylia fumed, storming off to stand beside Rosalina. "Cryptic! As always!"

Rosalina wrapped her hands together and worriedly looked to the floor. "Is there anything we can do? Anything at all?" The Reset button was a dangerous device, and it could rewrite everything within the button's control. They needed a plan, and she knew it. "There has to be something, we can't just let this go by..."

"No, Rosalina is right, we have to do something." Hylia put a hand to her chin as she considered what had happened. "If Master Hand does find and use the Reset, we need a failsafe. First, we have to know what he's planning to do with it, then we can devise a plan."

"_You people love your prophecies,_" commented Amaterasu. She gave Hylia a stern look as she proposed her idea. "_Perhaps you can control the future with it._"

There was silence as everyone considered the Sun Goddess' advice. What she was proposing was typically a last resort for Hylia, which she usually did when she learned Ganondorf had returned to her land. She usually controlled the lives of the Hero's Spirit, rebirthing him every time the time was right and when Hyrule needed its hero, and when things got bad, she'd create a plan for her Hero so that he could do what was right and save the day. She turned to the Judge's stand and pulled from the drawer a piece of parchment and a quill.

Hylia turned to consider the other four with her in the room. "Ladies," she addressed, "let's write a prophecy."

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

The end result of her close encounter with Maxwell was Rosalina wandering around the town aimlessly in a trance. In one day she had been granted the permission to actively seek Princess Zelda and Link, as well as to give them their son. She had also gotten a job, and learned information that rather scared her - Master Hand had the ability to rewrite the story that the Reset had assigned to the various people of this town. Still, something felt wrong about the entire discussion, but she wasn't going to dwell on it.

The town was rather peaceful though. Now she could focus on finding Zelda and Link and not have to worry about the Hands breathing down her neck. There was the idea, though, of finding people that she could trust - Mario, Captain Falcon, Peach and Marth, perhaps? - as the idea of having allies made her feel better about this entire situation. Even if he said it would be pointless to try and mess with his perfect world, he gave no indication that he knew what Outset had done with Ness just a few days ago. That meant he didn't realize that Ness was awake.

That gave her the upper hand, if she could only wake up others.

Her thoughts were disrupted, however, when she impacted with a young woman who was carrying books, which had fallen to the ground unceremoniously from the impact. Rosalina bent down immediately to help the woman with picking them up.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you like that," commented the female. "I mean, geez, if Robin were here, he'd be laughing at me so hard..."

Rosalina looked up in surprise, holding two of the five books that had fallen. She was met with the face of Reflet, one of the two mages that had aided Mewtwo in sending Outset to her at the brink of the Reset. If she recalled right, Palutena had sent Pit to guard the little hole in the ground that they were using. "Oh, no, it's alright. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

Reflet paused as she looked at Rosalina carefully, accepting the books that Rosalina offered. "I don't recognize your face! You must be the newcomers. I live down the street from your house."

"Yes, we moved in just last week," she confirmed. "My name is Rosalina. I have my son with me as well, he goes to Polestar Elementary."

Reflet gave a smile, giving a nod in confirmation. "My name's Reflet. I live with my twin brother, Robin."

Rosalina gave a smile at that. At least they were still together. From what she recalled of the two of them, Robin and Reflet had been remarkably close, always trailing after each other since childhood. "It's always nice to be living with family."

"Yeah, but he can be a pain," Reflet laughed. "It's a good thing we're very similar, though we need to hire a maid or something because neither of us likes doing dishes." Suddenly, her eyes brightened. "Oh! Have you been trying to figure out your way around town? I can help you out if you ever need help getting somewhere, you know. We're just that red house out on the corner."

"I suppose that would come in handy," Rosalina said with a smile. It was good she had discovered Reflet. The tactician twins had been very close to Link, Marth and Captain Falcon before. Perhaps they would come in very helpful here as well. "I recently got myself some guaranteed employment, so I would definitely need some help getting to and from work."

"Oh? Where at?" Reflet asked.

"Apparently there's a newspaper that requires an article writer. I know the editor, so he thought I would be able to help," Rosalina explained. "I just... don't where the building is. I could always call him tonight and ask..."

Reflet cut in before she could even finish her though. "The editor's building is this really old and really creatively attacked building just down a couple of blocks. Pretty sure it used to be a firehouse before the new one got put in down the street. They took out the fire pole and added some rooms, and bam, they had this awesome editor's newspaper building. Except no one wants to work there."

"Now I wonder why that could be," Rosalina mused.

The tactician gave a grin. "The main editor's the younger brother of Mr. Mayor Maxwell Handson himself. Speaking of job-searching though... at the moment, I'm job-searching, too, since Wario's been cutting hours at the Japanese food place recently and I've been one of those unfortunate people to get their hours cut in half."

"Oh no, how dreadful." There were many Wario brand restaurants, she had noticed. Would he be cutting hours of all his restaurants, or just the one?

Reflet gave a shrug. "The one people who frequent the place are the Lowells, the Greils, and the Pheraes, so I suppose it was bound to happen..." She put a hand to her head. "Still, I can't just sit around do nothing all day so I'm hoping to find something else to bide my time with that would get me some cash."

Rosalina thought for a moment, trying to remember what she knew of Reflet from before. "Reflet, how are you with children?"

These words caused her to pause. The gears were clearly moving in her head as she considered the offer. "Well, I'm pretty good with the neighbourhood kids, as long as they're well-behaved. Why?"

"Well, as I'll be at this job now, I can't always be home for Outset when he comes home from school," she explained. "Needless to say, I much prefer he have adult or teenage supervision." Rosalina then gave Reflet a smile, hoping that she would understand. "If you're available when I need help with him, I can make you his go-to babysitter, or nanny."

At this suggestion, Reflet gave a smile. "Well, my hours seem to be lining up with his. Chances are, I'd be available whenever he comes off school."

Rosalina gave a nod, and they both shook hands. Though Reflet might not remember who she was or where she had come from, at least there was someone that could look after Outset while she worked alongside Crazy Hand in the editor's building. At least he'd be secure and safe, considering she'd be in the fire with no protective gear.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

The courtroom lights had since dimmed to match the sunlight outside, and if Rosalina peered out the window to spy on their escorts, it seemed Ninten and Lloyd had adopted one of the Lumas and were playing tag to keep themselves entertained. The writing of the prophecy had taken a long time, but finally the five stepped back to stare at the now floating piece of parchment paper, the prophecy written on it in a shining green ink. Golden sparkles seemed to emanate from the parchment, but where they were truly coming from, Rosalina didn't know.

"It's done," announced Hylia. "Our failsafe is set."

"_I hope that this works to your expectations,_" Amaterasu stated, looking between Hylia and Palutena with a wary look on her wolf features. "_If it goes according to plan, my fragile underlings are safe even if they do get caught in the Reset._"

Hylia put on a grim look. It was one that Rosalina had seen before whenever her prophecies were commented on or questioned. "Now that it's written in this parchment, this will come to pass." She gestured toward the parchment and addressed the rest of those present. "Now that we have set this in stone, we know for sure that this failsafe will work and Master Hand will not win. The Smashers will always prevail."

"_And who, just so I know, will bear the child that will be the saviour of this entire situation?_" Amaterasu asked, voicing the one question that caused Palutena and Rosalina to look at her in surprise.

Rosalina then turned to Hylia, concerned for the future. "... It won't be Peach, will it? She and Mario... they're nowhere near..."

Hylia shook her head. "I've already decided on who will give birth to the Chosen One." She turned around and picked up the harp that had been passed down for years in her family line that she often stepped into now and then. She turned back to the others and showed them the harp, giving them a smile. "I've decided on Zelda. She has this boy that she fancies that lives out on a farm in the country - of course, a few strings will have to be pulled, but... It will be what she desires."

Palutena hesitated before stepping forward. "You're dooming that child to a life without their parents. You do realize this?"

"It's only for twelve years," Queen Mary intercepted. "And, once all is said and done, that child will be able to return to their parents with open arms on both ends. At least it's not twenty-eight. Or eighty." She took a few steps forward, looking Hylia straight in the eye. "I suggest one of us should escape to the world that Master Hand will send everyone within the Reset's vicinity to... and then, when the child is born, organize a ritual to send that child to the one who escaped. That one will raise the child and move them to the location in twelve years."

Hylia gave a nod. "Yes, that's reasonable. Any volunteers?"

When she turned to the other four awaiting an answer, there was a pregnant pause. The only sound that could be heard was that of a nearby fireplace, and the laughter coming from Ninten, Lloyd and the Luma they were playing with. It was quiet for at least two minutes, before Rosalina looked up at Hylia and gave a nod, stepping forward.

"... I will do it."

Hylia frowned. "This means that you won't be able to stay in your Observatory and hide away. The Lumas will have to fend for themselves for the first time in thousands of years."

Rosalina wished that she didn't have to point out the flaws in the plan. She knew the risks, and was willing to take them. "Yes, but if Master Hand gets his way and this entire plan doesn't work out thanks to one small thing, the Observatory would be pointless. I've left Polari in charge before while I attended Peach's sports tournaments. He can do it again while I take care of the child."

Hylia considered it, and then smiled. "Very well. Rosalina will do it."

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

The Great Fairy sneered at the Sacred Trio before her. "What kind of plan is that? Is that really what Hylia is planning to do? A simple... _prophecy_."

Din turned to Nayru and Farore. "They believe that one simple child would be strong enough to stand up against the Master Hand? It's so foolish - the child would be such a weakling, not even worthy of the Triforce or the Hylia name."

Nayru gave a nod. "What do you suggest, Great Fairy?"

The Great Fairy shared a look with Farore, who turned towards a simple looking blade stabbed into a nearby stone. It was the Master Sword, left there by the previous Hero to be claimed by the next. "I suppose we can do a bit of prophesying ourselves. Mix it up a little..."

"When the time is right," Farore spoke, smirking back to her sisters and the Great Fairy, "the Hero is always Reborn."

* * *

_Authoress' Notes:_

If there's anything I was super duper excited about this world that I created, it's the idea that the Worlds would have council meetings. This one is different in that Master Hand summoned just the heads of Nintendo, and Amaterasu, as they are all magical in form and Goddesses in some shape or form. Can you imagine being Rosalina meeting up with a bunch of weird people? The head of Nintendo is Hylia, the head of Capcom would be Amaterasu, the head of Namco would be Pac-Man himself, and Sega's leader would be Blaze the Cat. Sonic wouldn't agree to be leader. Of course, now these people wouldn't be, considering the Reset, and as of this moment in the Game World's history, Sega's in flames. I think the only one now who would still be the Leader of their realm... would be Amaterasu.

_Interesting Info:  
• _Queen Mary answers to Palutena, who answers to Rosalina, who answers to Hylia. Amaterasu just does her own thing. I was originally going to have her flanked by two people from Street Fighter and Phoenix Wright but then I decided they'd be too busy butting into the conversation. The two I was going to have would have called bullshit to Master Hand's plan, one of them with a big red **OBJECTION! **chimed in.  
• Queen Mary, Ninten and Lloyd originate from Mother 1, in case you're going to try and Google Queen Mary.  
• Pay close attention to both versions of Master Hand's dialogue - specifically, his discussion with the Four Greats and Amaterasu, and the two chats that he has with Rosalina in Vidchester. There's a distinct difference between the way that he words things.  
• To be honest, there's a reason Queen Mary is the one that suggests a Reset.  
• Pay close attention to the description of how the Reset button works.  
• Fun Fact! Link from the Wind Waker game has _green _eyes as opposed to the typical _blue_. Don't believe me? Look at the eyes of Toon Link from SSB4 very carefully. Specifically, the shading at the top of his eyes.

_Reviews:_

Starryskys102: I added a small notation to the end of Chapter 2 after you dropped in your review. Yu and Ai are not the Ice Climbers, but they'll show up eventually! But, don't worry, I can understand the confusion considering they are in very much close to resemblance of Nana and Popo, especially with Ai having a pink streak in her hair. Nope, they're actually the Villagers from Animal Crossing. Their names are derived from the anime movie that was released some odd four or so years ago, where the two human characters in the movie were named Yu and Ai, as in _you and I. _As a sort of shout out, I decided to use the same names for the Villagers in this fanfiction.

Daisy Bokoblin: You are asking someone who practically _breathes _Mother 1 if Earthbound is a good game to play. In truth, all three are pretty fantastic games with quirky storytelling and funny, odd and random events. I literally was just playing through the desert in Earthbound and I found bones that said they don't talk. Trust me, they may be hard at times and you'll need to level grind, and you'll be sobbing thanks to devastating events (thanks, Mother 3), but in the end, it's worth it because it's such an _experience_. Of course, I'm more of a Mother 1 fan than an Earthbound fan, but that's cause Mother 1 really earns the title of _Mother_. Earthbound itself is one of the better of the three, and I definitely suggest playing it, and trying to get a hold of the other two.

lolruss505: You'll have to refresh my memory on who Ashley is before I can answer that question! I am sorry about that.

ViVi: I'm glad that you're enjoying this so far! Also: Good catch on the topic of Yu and Ai's names. You are also correct on the tune that Ness hums! It is Smiles and Tears!


	4. 1x4 What Makes A Brother?

**EPISODE 1x4**

**WHAT MAKES A BROTHER?**

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

The girl with the blonde hair in the red dress hurriedly rushed from the bedroom to the front door of the quant home. Nestled deep in the city, the home was easily overlooked due to its seemingly normal appearance, but Dr. Light was anything but normal. Roll was one of the robots that he had built that lived there happily, but tonight, she was worried.

Swinging open the front door, Roll was greeted with the sight that she wanted to see – the red clad robot, Proto Man. "Thank goodness, Proto Man! You got my message! It couldn't hurt to send one back, you know!"

Her words were greeted with him silently stepping into the home. She watched him with an aggravated expression before following him down the hall as he headed off immediately for the room she had left. The lights were dim in the hallways tonight. Roll had figured it would be better for Proto Man's faulty visionary optics as they were sensitive to light. She had offered many times to repair them, but his insistence of keeping his helmet on at all times prevented that.

That wasn't the focus, though. Roll had something important to share with him. "... So, about why I called you here..."

"You were pretty fierce with your words in the message, Roll," he pointed out, his voice curt. "Something wrong with Mega Man, right?"

She pushed open the semi-closed door, allowing herself and Proto Man inside of Mega Man's room. He lay there on the bed before them, writhing in what could only be described as extreme discomfort. It was just the three of them in the room, allowing Proto Man to relax and take the chair that Roll offered. With no Dr. Light, there was a chance for just the three of them - a moment of just them as siblings, as best as could be achieved with them.

Roll took a stool that sat in the corner of the room, and placed it next to Proto Man, sitting down and gripping Mega Man's blankets tightly with one hand. She sighed and moved a loose strand of her hair away from her face. "So... as you can probably tell..."

"... This is Roboenza," Proto Man finished. Roll looked at him closely to see his mouth flatten, indicating a change of expression. With his eyes blocked, it was hard to really tell what he was feeling. "How long has he had it?"

For a moment, she was quiet. "I'd say at least two to three days, pending. He tried to keep it hidden from me and Dr. Light, but I was getting virus notifications left, right and center from him whenever he passed me." She huffed at the end of her sentence. "He finally collapsed this morning, and that's when I contacted you."

The three of them were, in a way, connected wirelessly on a special frequency thanks to their computer brains. While Proto Man usually closed himself off from them (most likely to spare Roll from all the notifications), there were times when he would to check on Mega Man's status or momentarily connect with them to find out where they were. It was a helpful feature, since it kept them in contact and knowing how the others were, though Proto Man had a tendency to drop right off the map and not contact them for weeks on end, only stopping by for quick repairs from Roll or for e-Tanks.

Proto Man was quiet after Roll spoke her words for a moment. Then, his mouth dropped into a frown. "He's so foolish..."

"He didn't want us to worry, I guess..." Roll figured. "But, now he's worse off than he could have been if he'd have just been honest with us. To be honest, Proto Man? He's about as stubborn as you."

Her response from Proto Man was an annoyed tsk. "Typical."

"Anyways," Roll interrupted, "I need you to look for the cure. Dr. Wily is the one who designed Roboenza to begin with, so he probably has it."

"Why me, Roll?" Proto Man asked, as he looked away from Mega Man to face Roll directly. "What about one of the Robot Masters, or Dr. Light?"

"Dr. Light is out of town today on a conference meeting, and he has Time Man and Bomb Man with him," Roll explained, getting up and jabbing a finger right on Proto Man's chest. "The _other _Robot Masters are all doing what they were programmed to do, and that is help in the town! I can't go, I need to stay here with him. You're the only one with weapons that can do this for me... This is for our brother, Proto Man, don't be selfish!"

Proto Man was quiet once again for a moment as he stared at her right in the face. She tried her best to glare at him right in the eyes, but with his visor and sunglasses, it was difficult to do just that. She needed him to do this for her, there was no one else. Auto couldn't do something like this at all; this was basically breaking into Wily's castle and coming out with the cure for Mega Man. Only Proto Man could do this, and she knew it.

"Roll... You're home alone, with no defense."

Roll blinked. "What? Well, yes, but..."

"You know I don't want to do this. I'm purposely avoiding Dr. Wily."

Roll stomped a foot. There was the loud sound of metal connecting with the floor, and Proto Man jolted back for a moment at the suddenness of it. "Look, I'd ask Bass if I could, but I don't trust him! I _know _Wily's got beef with you! But, please! _Please, _Blues! This is for Rock!"

Proto Man took a moment to glance at Mega Man, crossing his arms across his chest. Roll glared at him as best she could, her brows furrowing down. She knew this look would work on Dr. Light and Mega Man in an instant, the minute they looked her straight in the eye. With Proto Man, it took some time, and he easily avoided it thanks to his visor and his sunglasses underneath. He never actually looked her in the eye, and she knew it.

Finally, Proto Man looked up at her, and Roll waited for his response.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Cooked food was not something they had much of anymore. Since their dad left for that crazy long conference run, leaving Blues in charge, things had been tight – with everything from money, to blankets, to food. Roll thought it was ridiculous of their father in the first place, seeing as Blues was fourteen years old and couldn't bring in a good income on his own. It was one of the reasons she took up that paper route. Their father hadn't even prepared a baby sitter for them, believing that Blues could handle everything on their own.

The food they were having today was the rare Chinese take-out. Blues hadn't felt like messing with the canned food after a long day of school and a shift at Fast Wario's, so Roll suggested food from a restaurant that was cheap. Wario Wario ran all kinds of restaurants in town, so with the discount card Blues had, they got a little treat for the night. Now all they needed was Rock to get home from his outing with Ness and Outset, and they were all set.

Roll took a moment to look around their modest home. Since their father had left, they had gravitated to the basement of the raised ranch home as everything upstairs had just begun to fail, and their father's equipment got in the way. The bathroom still operated – so that was good, they had running water – but everything else needed a repair man in order to fix them. Blues had basically destroyed their father's bed to get the mattress down, and Roll had set up curtains everywhere to separate the one room basement into three. They usually shared the queen-sized mattress in Blues' room just for the feeling of not being alone, but Rock and Roll technically had a double mattress to share in the third room they had created. It was rarely used.

Their father wouldn't be pleased when he finally returned with what they had done to the place, but they weren't exactly pleased with him either. Even Rock said he was sure he abandoned them, and Rock loved everybody.

"Roll, can you check outside again?" Blues asked from his bedroom. "Rock's cutting it close."

"Sure thing," Roll commented, and she rushed to the outside access by the kitchen. She opened up the door, and peeked out.

Nothing.

"Guess they're having fun at the arcade!" she yelled back, and the outright groan from Blues was the reply she got.

Truthfully, yes, they were having fun at the arcade. Teaming up against Ness and Outset on a Street Fighter run was Rock and Ninten, who had joined them for the night. Ninten was Ness' older cousin, older by one year and with similar fashion tastes, aside from his odd choice of red socks. He was a nice boy, if a bit competitive.

"Come on, get him, get him, get him!" Ninten cheered as Rock tried his best to beat up Ness' character. Unfortunately, Rock lost not even a minute later. "Awwww."

Ness laughed, giving Outset a high five. "Unbeatable with Ryu! See, I told you!"

Outset saw the clock on the wall and panicked. "Aw, snap! My Mama expected me home a few minutes ago!"

"Whoa, is that time already?!" Ninten commented. "I got to get going, our uncle's going to have my head! Good thing my mom wouldn't mind, but..."

"We should probably get heading off," Ness agreed. "See you later, Rock!"

With that, Ness and Ninten ran out of the arcade, Outset following shortly after, once he had his bag slung over his shoulder. Rock laughed and grabbed his own, stepping out the door and heading off in a different direction, towards the more run-down neighbourhood. He kicked at a stone on the walkway before looking up, seeing a group of teenagers approaching him.

"What's up?" asked one of them, putting his hands in his pockets. Rock knew who they were - they were the Koopaling Gang, a gathering of Bowser's son and his loony tune friends. They thought they were a big bad bunch of gangsters. Blues thought they were ridiculous and annoying, and Rock couldn't help but agree. "This is our neighbourhood, and you know that."

"My house is just down a couple of streets," Rock told them. "I'll be out of your hair in a few moments..." He tried to walk around them, but Larry stopped him. "Hey, I..."

"We don't care about that, your very look offends us!" claimed Wendy, as she stepped up. "Look at that - you call that an outfit?" She poked at his shirt. He admitted it was a bit big for him, but he was wearing hand-me-downs from Blues. "Where do you live? The town dumpster?"

"No, I live in a raised ranch!"

"Oh, he's got a fire on him!" declared Roy now. "Hey, Junior... Can we beat him up, now?"

The gang all turned to look at Bowser Jr. himself. Rock panicked inside as slowly a stone began to form in his stomach, and a feeling of fear began to rise up his spine. The son of one of the most powerful people in town was before him, slowly stepping into the light of the streetlamp as if it were his own personal spotlight. He watched in horror as Bowser Jr. slowly began to sneer as he crossed his arms, and the Koopaling Gang slowly began to chuckle in response, each turning to look at him.

Rock gulped.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Proto Man wasn't sure what brought him to this part of the city, but something told him that who he was looking for was somewhere around here. Roll had said if she could trust Bass she would have gone to him, and while he was quiet about it, he agreed.

At the end of the day, although he wanted to avoid Dr. Wily as best as possible, Mega Man was in trouble and his systems were in danger. Roboenza was a dangerous virus that could affect the programming of a robot, and if they weren't quick, everything that made Rock Mega Man, or Mega Man Rock, could be altered forever. They had already lost two or three days, so Proto Man had to work quick. He may have avoided them, made them think he didn't care, and may have not been home when they were activated, but they were still his siblings at the end of the day.

That was what brought him here.

"So, big red."

A swift turn behind him, shield raised, brought to sight Bass. Proto Man lowered his shield, but didn't deactivate his Buster. "I was hoping to run into you. There's something we need to discuss."

"There's _nothing _we need to discuss," Bass sneered. He had his own Buster activated as well. "I haven't seen Mega Man in a few days and I'm itching to blow something up!"

As a precaution, Proto Man raised his shield and kept his head behind it. "That's what we need to talk about; Mega Man has Roboenza. I need to know if Dr. Wily has a cure for it in his castle before I go blowing my way through it." Best to get all his checks crossed before he does his next act of arson.

Bass laughed. "What do you think, Proto Jerk!? Wily designed it! He probably uploaded it into Mega Dork the last time they had a kerfuffle."

Considering Bass was now having too much fun laughing as opposed to pondering shooting at things, Proto Man lowered his shield. "The last time...? When was that?"

Bass stopped to think about it. It seemed to take a lot of thinking power as Proto Man was pretty sure he saw smoke coming out of him. "I don't know? Maybe four... five days ago? It wasn't that long ago, I know that." Suddenly, he switched, as he pointed his Buster towards him. Proto Man quickly raised his shield once again, just to be safe. "But, who cares?! There's going to be no Mega Man for me to blow up, so I have to blow up you!"

"Why am I a good... replacement... exactly...?" Proto Man asked, already getting tired of the conversation and wanting to leave. "We have two completely different functions. You know this."

"You're his older brother, jerk," Bass voiced. "He listens to _you_."

A Buster fight broke out between them, though only Bass was firing. Proto Man kept his shield up as he retreated from the scene, ducking into an alley way and racing down it. Bass was screaming and yelling for him to return and actually fight, but honestly, he could care less. He wasn't in the mood for a fight, and he was pressing for time. If what Bass said was right, Mega Man was suffering from Roboenza before Roll even _caught on _to it.

"Hey!"

Proto Man stopped. He looked immediately to his left, seeing a Hyrulean step forward from the darkness, a strange blue flying creature hovering around his head. "... Hey?"

"I'm Proxi!" claimed the blue, flying thing, as she hovered by Proto Man's head. "And this is Link! Don't mind him, he's the quiet type! Who are you? Where are you off to in a hurry?" She buzzed around in excitement, clearly interested in the person they had found. Truthfully, he just wanted her to go away from his visor. She was bright.

For a moment, though, he was quiet. After thinking about it, he figured they were nice enough, and they hadn't tried to kill him yet. "I'm Proto Man. I'm heading to Wily's castle." He began to walk towards his destination, as Link and Proxi followed after him. He looked back and watched as Link stepped after him, almost in his shadow. Great, stragglers.

"Ooo! Fun!" claimed Proxi as Link gave a smile. She circled their group for a moment before she continued to speak. "We're looking for a special key! Link's on a quest, you see. The King sent him out into the world to prove himself worthy, and I'm helping him out!" She hovered around Link's head for a moment before hovering in front of them, as if she was leading the way. "It's a very important quest, so he's doing his utmost best!"

"Good for him," Proto Man voiced, hoping they went away soon.

They didn't.

Proxi hovered between both their heads, clearly sizing them up, noticing that Proto Man was short compared to Link. "Hope you don't mind us joining you! We figure you might lead us to one of the keys!" Proto Man wondered if they had a connection like he did with his siblings. After a moment of considering that, he doubted it, but it was still creepy.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

The curtains were drawn and the bedrooms were closed off. That wasn't a good sign.

When Rock stepped through the worn out door, and carefully stepped down into the basement, he hadn't expected the food still left out on the table for him and Blues and Roll tucked away in the bed section of their home. His stomach growled in protest of the smell of the food, telling him to eat it, but Rock merely sat in front of it and stared blankly. He was hungry, having not eaten since lunch, but he didn't think he deserved the Chinese food that was offered. Not after what had just happened.

"… Rock…?" came a voice from one of the bed sections, and the curtain was pulled back slightly. A flashlight was turned on, and Rock was greeted with the light coming from Blues. "You're three hours past curfew."

Right. He had forgotten in the midst of all that had happened. "'M sorry." He winced.

Blues slowly approached, clearly going as slow as he could so as to not startle him. Rock appreciated it. "Where were you?"

He gave no reply. There was no reason to. As soon as he was close enough... Blues would know exactly where Rock was. His eye hurt, his arm hurt, it felt like everywhere hurt. He was sure his nose was still crusted red from when it was bleeding. They hadn't exactly been friendly with their punishment of his wandering into their territory.

Suddenly the flashlight fell to the ground and rolled under the table. Blues had dropped it. "... What happened to your eye?!"

"... Nothin'," Rock said, looking away.

Blues frowned. "'Nothing'."

Truthfully, Rock felt bad lying to his older brother. After all this mess with their father leaving them behind as he went off into the world to those conferences or whatever it was he was off doing, Blues didn't need his younger brother lying to him about what had happened. Rock found himself completely unable to even look his brother in the eye, as he turned to instead watch the floor, a hand going to his black eye in an attempt to soothe it. He winced as his hand met the tender skin, letting out a slight whine in pain.

Suddenly, a caring hand wrapped itself around his wrist and lowered his hand, and Rock felt another lightly touch the area around the eye. Blues was taking a look. "It looks pretty bad. You want a cold cloth?" The tone used was different than the one he had used before and Rock felt himself relax just a little bit.

But, he still found himself only able to nod.

Blues gathered a few other items they had available. Before too long, Rock was holding a cold, wet cloth against his eye while his older brother spread some cream on the rather nasty bruises he was sporting on his other arm. His older brother didn't say another word about the injuries and how they were caused - all he did was remark on how they looked, or asked about whether or not it still hurt. In a way, Rock was glad, but he was also slightly worried. Did Blues catch on?

He didn't notice the grim look Blues wore as he led Rock away to sleep next to Roll. He didn't notice Blues grab his sunglasses and leave the house either.

Where was Blues going? Down the street. He followed along the road and took many turns. He knew which house he needed to go to because it was the only one that had been empty for many years. New people in town meant that house was finally filled. And here he was, in front of it.

Blues stepped up to the door and knocked immediately. Outset's mother answered.

"Why hello, um...?"

It was understandable that she was confused. "I'm Blues. I'm Rock's older brother."

Outset's mother blinked at those words and gave him a gentle nod. "Yes, I've met Rock when I had to pick Outset up from school the other day. He's quite a nice boy." She then tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "But... What are you doing visiting here at this hour? Did Rock not make it home?"

She seemed like such a nice woman. Blues felt quite bad that he was going to be bringing this up at all. "... You and I... We need to talk."

Slightly panicked, Outset's mother stepped aside to let Blues in. She led the way to the living room where she gestured to the couch and she sat in a chair. She stayed quiet as Blues sat there wondering how to start the conversation. He put his hands together in front of him, feeling a sense of nervousness he only ever felt when dealing with teachers asking him where his father had been for the past year. It was like he was a con artist out in the open.

"... I guess the first thing I need to do is ask where Outset is," Blues began. "This kind of has something to do about him."

He watched as she instantly tensed. "... Oh. I see. He's up in his room going through a story book at the moment. Is something the matter?"

"Tonight my brother came home three hours past curfew with bruises, a bloody nose and a black eye," he said rather bluntly. "So yes, something is the matter."

"Oh, dear..." Outset's mother muttered. She held her hands together on her lap, appearing quite distressed. "You're worried that Outset did it, aren't you? You're implying that this is the first time he's come home to you like this." Her hands found their way to her chin and she closed her eyes. "That is correct, is it not?"

Blues shook his head. "I don't want to blame Outset just because he's new. I just want to cover all my bases before I jump to conclusions."

"I assure you, Outset doesn't bully his peers," she told him in a just tone. "The poor boy can barely find it in his heart to stomp on a spider in the shower."

"I know Ness wouldn't do it because I've known Ness for years," Blues added. Behind his triangle shades, he narrowed his eyes. "So if he didn't do it, and Outset didn't do it, then who beat up my brother?"

Outset's mother looked at him with a look that he could only describe as what a stern guardian would wear. He'd seen it before on the faces of a few of his teachers. "It looks like we have something to investigate, Blues."

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Link was more of a talk less and more of an action kind of guy. Proto Man liked that part of him. It was his fairy that did the talking for him that he didn't like. He didn't like their decision to join them, but at the end of the day, having some back up might do him some good. Dr. Wily's traps and castles were sometimes hard to navigate, even making a challenge for Mega Man, who had been doing it for two years now. It also didn't help that typically, Proto Man worked alone until Mega Man needed help, and well... Mega Man needed help.

Link's sword was ineffective against many of Dr. Wily's robots, but he had in his possession, many types of bombs and weapons that were about as effective as Mega Man's Weapons Variable System logs. Link had a massive ball and chain that dealt some serious damage when swung into a robot, and Proto Man was glad that he was on his side. Potentially. He doubted they were evil - Proxi was far more chipper than the typical bad guy minion.

Speaking of Proxi.

"Hey! Look!" she chirped, hovering by an opening in the wall. "Someone's been here, Link! Proto Man! I think we should go check it out." She hovered back to Link and Proto Man and darted back and forth between them and the opening. "It looks fresh - whoever was here, they were here recently! It might be neat to check it out, and you never know! Maybe it will be interesting and help us both out!"

"What do you think it might be?" Proto Man asked, wary that they were trying to lead him away from his goal. "I sort of have to be at Dr. Wily's... Wait, hold on." He reached a hand up to his helmet, and answered the call that he had just gotten notified for. "Roll?"

"_Proto Man! I need you to lie to Dr. Light if he tries to contact you!_" Roll started up. "_Dr. Light called and I felt so bad, but I lied to him about Mega Man and told him that you and Rock were off doing something against Dr. Wily. I just... I didn't want him to worry._" There was a slight hitch in her vocals and Proto Man felt a small tinge of worry.

"Is... is he worse off?" he asked. He watched Link's face scrunch up in worry for a moment. "I sort of ran into a bunch of Wilybots, so I apologize if I'm taking longer than anticipated."

Roll was quiet for a moment and Proto Man figured she had him on speaker as she worked on Mega Man. "_He's about the same as you left, but the virus is beginning to spread. I can see that you're very close - I can only wish you good luck, and I'm sorry._" Proto Man decided to believe she was apologizing for forcing him to lie to Dr. Light. Honestly, even if she hadn't asked for his help with Mega Man, he'd be doing this anyway. "_You need to hurry, Elec Man was just here and he told me he saw Bass nearby his facility, so whatever is going on, Bass is up to something, too. Be careful._"

With that, she killed the connection.

Proxi was suddenly in Proto Man's face. He was really not liking how bright she was, and he wished he had a third pair of sunglasses. "Do we need to hurry somewhere? We'll help you out if you need it!" She was suddenly very bouncy as she darted back to Link, making Proto Man rather glad that she was away from his visor. "Don't worry about our mission - helping those in need is just as important as the King's quest! If there's something we can do to help, we'll be glad to offer our services for free. Link's nice that way - he just can't not help someone in need!"

As if to prove her point, Link stepped forward with a determined, yet understanding expression. The quiet Hyrulean gave a nod, looking closely at the robot before him, patiently waiting for the response to the offer of assistance.

Proto Man was quiet for a moment. "... It's my brother. He's sick."

"And you're looking for the cure?" Proxi finished curiously. She hovered back toward the hole that she discovered. "Oh no... I hope your brother's okay! But I'm certain we can find the cure that he needs! Maybe this hole leads to where you need to go. It's here, and its fresh, and clearly it's here because a door didn't work somewhere!" She hovered back to Link excitedly. "Link! We should really help Proto Man! He's been a great help with those robots so far, and his brother is sick! We can't just leave them out to dry!"

Link immediately nodded, stepping forward and holding out his hand for a handshake toward Proto Man. His stance was lax, but clearly on guard. There was just something that Proto Man couldn't quite place about the man, and he wondered if back home, Link was someone of nobility. Finally, Proto Man took the hand, the grip that tightened around his glove was... decidedly quite firm. Link shook it only once, before letting go and stepping toward the hole Proxi had discovered.

"Come on, Proto Man!" Proxi chirped. "This way, we're certain of it!"

Proto Man followed, and inside they discovered an abandoned computer system. Proxi explored, curious and not sure of what these machines were, while Link stepped toward a monitor with confusion. It took Proto Man a few moments to work out that this must have been one of Wily's old labs before Mega Man forced him to move locations. It must have been one that he was using in secret before, developing viruses and A.I.s of all sorts. There were a few boxes, but upon inspection, they were discovered to be empty.

"Whoever was here must be gone now..." Proxi sighed. "What a bummer! I was hoping that there would be someone here that could help us, or that needed beating up before they told us everything we desired to know!" She hovered over to Link, watching him press buttons curiously. "I'm not sure you should be touching that, Link."

"No," Proto Man agreed, stepping forward and looking at the screen. "What a minute... Can I see this?"

Link stepped out of the way immediately.

The two from Hyrule watched as Proto Man explored the contents of the computer. There were many files that made him wish he had a bigger universal serial bus drive to save and bring home to Roll and Dr. Light to go over. Sadly, he was here for only one thing, and he had only enough space for it. Still... what would Dr. Wily be needing a file on the Rupee system of Hyrule for? Or, for the different races that the F-Zero Races held? The different applications that Pikmins could be used for? The different Mushrooms of the Mushroom Kingdom? And why was there a document file entitled 'CPU'? When he opened it, all he was greeted with was the different personal medical files of what appeared to be a bunch of females he'd never heard of.

"This is so weird..." Proxi voiced. "It's like it's a universal encyclopedia on everything that makes up this world!" She hovered closer to the screen as Proto Man brought up a file on the Master Sword accidentally. "Just think of everything that anyone's ever wanted to know about what makes up the Game World - what runs our stories, what decides the Goddesses and the Leaders, and then you get something like this! This... Gamepedia!"

The newly dubbed Gamepedia was certainly something. It had files on everything - even on Proto Man himself, but he wasn't that surprised. Wily had helped with his creation. Finally, he found it - a file dedicated to Roboenza and its cure. Quickly, he copied it over to the drive he had on him and turned to his comrades. "I got the information I needed. It's time to go before we're caught here."

"What about the Gamepedia?" Proxi asked.

"I suppose you let your Princess know it's here," Proto Man figured. "Until then..."

A sudden crashing and banging noise made the group turn to the source. Proxi hovered closer to Link. "... I think we were found out!"

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

When she visited his work an hour earlier, Rosalina told him that Rock was hanging out with Ness and Outset around here somewhere. Typically the three of them visited the arcade, but today seemed to be a bit different. Outset was playing on the swings, easily the most noticeable with his shocking blonde hair that stood out. Blues fixed his sunglasses before melting away out of view of the newcomer and hiding on the park bench. He was still in his work uniform, his shift having just ended. Roll knew he had plans to stay out late tonight, and he wondered if she knew that this was his plan. She was a pretty sharp girl, that one.

"I don't often see you out and about," came a sudden voice, and Blues looked up to come face to face with Douglas Falcon, the car dealer that had a shop down the road from Fast Wario's. "There a reason you're actually out here and not at home, Blues?"

"I'm investigating," Blues explained, looking away immediately, catching the sight of his brother and Ness fooling around near the slide. "Someone picked on my brother a few days ago."

Falcon gave a chuckle. "You've always been pretty protective of your siblings... Your dad home from that crazy conference run, yet?"

Blues decided he didn't have the decency to give a reply. He was too busy watching Rock, anyways. As Falcon shrugged and walked off to continue his stalking job of Samus Aran jogging around the park, Blues watched his brother closely as he raced around the playground. It was obvious that he was still hurting from whatever had happened, as he winced whenever he had to use his right arm. It just made Blues feel more awful that he couldn't do anything about it, as it had already passed. The most he could do was try and make Rock comfortable when he got home.

But, at least he was happy here. Rock hadn't smiled at home since the incident. Blues had missed it. Considering how happy Rock was usually, it was an odd change in pace and behaviour. Clearly Outset and Ness had noticed as well, as they were doing their best to cheer him and make him happy once again.

"Hey, Rock, check this out!" Ness would say as he hung upside down from the monkey bars.

"Watch me!" Outset would say next, as he jumped from the highest point that he had reached on the swing, and did a somersault in mid air. Rock and Ness watched in amazement as Outset landed... not so nicely, but landed all the same. "... Ow."

Blues shook his head at the scene, but frowned once he noticed a certain group approaching. The Koopaling Gang were walking up to the jungle gym playground, and they weren't looking too happy. Suddenly, it all made sense - they were fools, idiots, and not that smart in general, failing many of their tests and barely making it through school. Blues was certain that only Ludwig knew the answer to 2 x 4, and understood that it wasn't 6.

"Hey, we told you to stay out of our territory!" exclaimed Larry. He stepped forward, preparing to shove the nearest child, who sadly wasn't affiliated with Rock and his friends. Said child was apparently smart, as he quickly ran off in fear. "Now we have to punish you again!"

"Prepare for a pounding!" claimed Roy. "We're angry that you didn't get the message the first time!"

"And you're still dressed like a slob!" Wendy cried, giving Rock's shirt a distasteful look.

Outset stepped forward. "Leave him alone, you bunch of bullies!" He bravely stood in front of Rock and Ness with his arms struck out to his sides, as if he was a barrier. "Go pick on somebody else or just leave!"

A strike of panic rose in the atmosphere and Blues could feel it. Each of the Koopaling Gang members were already scowling down at the boy that had stood up to them, some of them pounding their fists into their palms. Outset didn't stand down, though he was clearly scared, as he stepped back somewhat so he was closer to his friends should something happen. Bowser Jr. pushed through his friends, sneering down at the three of them with a look worthy of a murderer. It made the world suddenly seem bleak and dark.

"You've got some guts, you brat," Bowser Jr. said cooly. "I think, we need to teach you a lesson just like we had with little Mr. Trespasser in Plaid over there."

He prepared a punch, which Rock was about to step up to deflect, but suddenly, Blues was there, getting the hit instead. His knees buckled and he found himself on the ground, but he frowned and stood up before Bowser Jr. could do anything else, punching him quite hard into the stomach to stun him and knock him back.

"Blues!" Rock exclaimed in fear.

"Go home," Blues ordered, turning to look at all three of them. "All of you go home, right now, and let me handle this."

Rock looked ready to protest, and opened up his mouth to do so, but Blues simply put a hand forward to stop him. "But..."

"_Go home._ Leave this to me," Blues stressed, turning just in time to grab a flying fist coming in from Junior.

As the three boys ran off into the distance, the punch fight between Blues and Junior got intense. Blues could dodge quite well, deflecting shots and then punching where he found an opening. It startled the rest of the Koopalings of his apparent skill - compared to Bowser Jr., Blues was small, thin, and seemingly harmless looking, wearing clothing one size too big and with eyes that couldn't handle the sun. To learn that he was capable of hand to hand combat was rather breaking of his apparent weakling image.

In distress, Junior rushed to the nearest trash can, picking up the lid, and holding it up like a shield. Both of Blues' hands made impact with it, leaving small marks on his fingers and his knuckles, some of the even bleeding. With his hands damaged, he moved to his feet, kicking Junior right in the crotch. His foe fell to the ground in shock and pain, and Blues turned to the remainder of the gang.

"Who's next?"

No one stepped forward.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Dr. Wily didn't like what they had just done.

Link and Proto Man were having a race, in other words. Whoever managed to get flattened by the giant, one-eyed, yellow robot rampaging behind them would lose the game. Link was pretty good at dodging giant robots, Proto Man had to admit. He hadn't expected a Hyrulean to be able to move in the way that Link did, though he was suspecting that Link had some rather neat training. The way that he was able to dodge, swing his sword, and still manage to block projectiles with his shield certainly seemed to tell that he had really good reflexes, and most likely for really good reasons. Chances were, they would both manage to get out of this alive so long as Roll managed to bring up the shield in time for the lab.

Now if Proxi would just _shut up._

"Hey! Look out!" she called out to Proto Man, just in time for him to dodge a piece of falling building. "The robot's starting to focus its attention on the city! I still don't suggest letting your guard down though!" She swiftly moved out of the way of a chunk of cement and hurriedly moved back to Link's side. "The destruction is getting a little bit out of hand! I think we need to quicken the pace!" Then, suddenly, she stopped. "Wait! I think the robot has a weak point!"

"You're telling us this now?!" Proto Man asked in disbelief, as he and Link met up with her on the street.

"Sorry!" Proxi apologized. Her genuine tone made Proto Man instantly regret the one that he had used. She was just as good at guilt-tripping as Roll was. "Anyways, I'm positive that the weak point might be the eye! Watch as he attacks things and if things get close to his eye, he sort of... flails, I guess?" She fluttered about, clearly distraught. "So I think, you should target that and hit it with projectiles! The sooner we get this thing gone, the better for the townspeople, and the sooner we can get the cure to Proto Man's brother!"

"Whatever makes this go by faster is a plan in my book," said Proto Man, aiming his buster cannon at the robot immediately. "Think an arrow will work? Or can you throw a bomb that high?"

To answer his question, Link took a bomb, some rope, and attached it to his arrow using it. Well, that worked, too. With the new Bomb Arrow he had just improvised, Link knocked the arrow to the string and pulled back, aiming just higher than he usually did to compensate for the added weight. Proto Man and Proxi watched as the Hylian let loose the arrow, and the Bomb Arrow streamed through the air in an arc, finally hitting at the eye of the robot. With an explosion, everyone ducked as the robot flailed about, blinded, in seeming distress.

From then on, both Proto Man and Link took turns attacking the robot's eye, as Proxi gave bursts of encouragement and suggestions of when to fire. The robot started to wane, lose focus, even lose track of them altogether, as it slowly got blinded from fashioned Bomb Arrows and Buster shots. Proxi led the way as they aimed all attacks, and soon, it fell to the ground in short, yellow bursts. Both Link and Proto Man gave it glares as it vanished, as Proxi hovered in between them.

"What was it...? I've never seen it before!" Proxi admitted. "I have no idea what that thing was! Is it native to Capcom? It must be - I don't know a lot about Capcom! It's certainly nothing from Hyrule, or Nintendo for that matter! It's too left field... Proto Man, do you know what it was?"

Proto Man turned to continue toward Dr. Light's lab. "It was a Yellow Devil."

Roll was waiting at the door. At the sight of them, she immediately burst out of it rushing towards Proto Man. "There you are! When I saw the news, I was..." Before she could advance toward him too much, he held out a hand to stop her. "... Right. Did you find it?"

From out of nowhere, Proto Man produced the USB stick. "It's all right here - everything you need to know about Roboenza."

As if it held the secrets to the universe, Roll carefully took it. "... I'm going to check it all out. You're free to, um... step inside, to see him, if you want." With those words said, she turned back toward the house to look at the information. "Thank you, Blues."

"Blues?" Proxi asked, curiously. "Who's Blues?"

"Blues is me," was the answer, as Proto Man turned to get ready to leave.

"But..." Proxi and Link both turned back toward the lab for a moment, before turning back to look at the retreating Proto Man. "Where are you going? Aren't you going to see your brother? You were so worried about him before... So, obviously you care about him, right?"

Proto Man stopped. "I've done what was needed. There's no point in staying around any longer than I have to."

Link and Proxi shared looks for a moment, or at least what could be assumed as a look-sharing moment. Link then stepped up to Proto Man and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing the robot to look up at him blankly. Proxi came up beside him on the other side, and together, they began to lead Proto Man back to the lab. No words were stated, not even from Proxi, until they reached the door.

"I think..." Proxi began, hovering closely to Link, "... and so does Link, that you care about your brother and sister very much! When you care about people very much, sometimes, you overlook yourself and your own needs, and here, you're dismissing your need to be beside them because for whatever reason, you think they don't want you! Well, we think that you do want to be beside them... and that they want you, too. I think that your brother would be very happy to see you! So go! Go see them!"

"It's not that simple..." Proto Man began, but Link merely pushed him forward. "Okay, fine..."

"We have to go looking for that key," Proxi began once again, as Proto Man turned to look at them. "I suppose this is goodbye?"

Proto Man looked away as he placed a hand on the doorknob of the door. He wished he could help them like they had for him. "You know, I think I read something about a key being found nearby in the forest... Maybe that's what you're looking for."

Link gave a smile and a nod, giving Proto Man a thumbs up before turning and heading down the road once more. Proxi hovered for a moment before retreating as well, offering a thanks and a farewell as she darted away. Proto Man gave a smirk, before entering the home and heading down to Mega Man's room once again. He stepped in to see Roll downloading the anti-virus software, and looking up in surprise.

"I thought you'd left..." she quietly stated, getting up immediately from the seat she had been sitting on.

Proto Man shook his head, stepping up to Mega Man's bed to watch him. "... I decided different." If he noticed the happy look hiding a thrilled and excited Roll on the inside, or the synthetic tears beginning to form, he said nothing. He figured it didn't need to be said.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

His hand hurt, and his knuckles and fingers were red, bruised and slightly scabbed from all the punching he did thanks in part to Junior's trash can lid shield, but Blues figured it was worth it. Rock was asleep on the queen mattress over in the corner, the curtains drawn and the lantern snuffed out. Only one was lit – the one in front of Blues that Roll needed so that she could wrap his hands in tape bandages, which she did with a large frown on her face. She glanced up at him in slight disbelief, before she shook her head.

"... I can't believe you did that," she voiced.

"It was necessary," was his response. He huffed to himself and looked way for a moment, his sensitive eyes blinking at the light of the lantern, before turning to look back at his sister. He watched her tape up his hands in silence, before deciding to add on to his explanation. "Roll, they made him _bleed._"

"So does the ground, and I don't see you kicking that in frustration." Roll made a huffing noise of her own, and Blues almost scoffed at how much it resembled his. "Listen, I know it's different when it's other kids doing it, but that doesn't mean you're allowed to go beat them up until the skin over your knuckles wears down." She was clearly satisfied with the bandages for now, as she began to prepare to lock them into place. "Now you're bleeding, and Rock's going to feel responsible for your self-inflicted injuries."

Ah. He hadn't thought of that. Rock's heart was big, very big, but he had a tendency to think that everything was his fault regardless of what it was. Blues almost wondered where he got it from - it certainly wasn't their father. "They're my injuries, they're my fault. If he doesn't get that then..." He stopped. Where was he going with this?

Roll stopped as well, looking up at her older brother in curiousity. "Then what?"

Blues scoffed. "... Forget it. It's just... He's so foolish." He took a moment to recompose himself before gesturing with his head towards his now bandaged hands. "Are you done wrapping them up? Some stuff needs to be done."

Roll stood up then, placing both her hands on her hips and put on what Blues had decided was the scariest look she had ever given him. "_You're_ not doing anything. With those knuckles? You won't even be able to lift the fry baskets at work for a while. Want to know why? Because it will _hurt_. A _lot_. So you sit there, and I'll do the cleaning up." She twirled on her feet, and walked toward the kitchen.

Blues inspected Roll's bandage job carefully, seeing the singular strands that crossed his fingers, and the longer ones that traced across his hand to cover his injuries. He sighed for a moment, wondering to himself how he was going to explain this to his boss. He got bored of sitting, however, and decided to be a rebel and stand up. He couldn't just sit there and not do anything, even if Roll wasn't letting him help out with the cleaning. That meant that he could go check on Rock, though, so he went toward the queen mattress in the back that the two of them had dumped Rock on earlier. He was still sleeping soundly in the center of the bed, his own injuries patched up. Blues hadn't felt so useless as an older brother in a long time, always feeling that he had this whole situation after their father had left under control.

He sat down on the bed, reaching out with a sore hand to feel Rock's hair in between his fingers. "What am I going to do with you...?" he muttered.

"Hey, Blues!" came Roll's voice. "We've got a visitor upstairs!"

Blues swore under his breath and got up immediately. "Coming."

The walk up the stairs from their improvised bedroom was short, but the entire time Blues went over their litany of excuses they had used over the year that their father had been gone. When he reached the landing, he was greeted with the sight of Roll standing there alongside Outset's Mother, who was glancing upstairs with slight worry, most likely wondering why it looked so worn and forgotten.

"Ah, Blues..." she voiced, when she noticed he was there. "I was hoping to speak with you. Outset came home, and was crying about how worried he was about you... I see they had a run in with our mystery bully."

"Not so much a mystery now," Roll scoffed. "Bowser Jr.'s always causing some kind of trouble - it's not surprising he's not beating up on Elementary students." She crossed her arms and then glared at Blues. "And now Mr. Hero's got messed up hands because a trash can lid got involved!"

Blues gave an identical scoff of his own, looking away. "I did what had to be done - in the end, no one got hurt."

"No one but _you _and _Bowser Jr._, that is." Roll placed one hand on her hip, throwing herself forward to glare Blues in the eye, and poked him with a finger. "And I would hate to think what Bowser Jr. looked like considering how well you looked when you came home!"

"That will be enough..." Outset's mother intervened. "I just wish to speak to Blues privately."

With that, Roll gave one more of her scary looks to Blues, before she stormed off to go finish the cleaning. Blues led Outset's Mother up the stairs to what was left of the main floor living room - nothing but boxes of their father's things and a couple of couches neither of them could lift to bring downstairs. He watched as she wiped off some of the dust before sitting down, but he remained standing, quietly contemplating the bandages on his fingers.

"... That's quite the impressive job your sister did for your hands," she voiced. He looked at her in surprise. "Well, I'm assuming it was her, that is. You wouldn't have been able to do it yourself, considering damaged knuckles are... ah... very difficult to deal with." She hummed for a moment before putting her hands before her. "Now... from all this, I have learned one thing. You, my dear Blues, are rather protective."

Blues didn't even bother to deny it. "I can be. I don't like it when people pick on them." He was about to stuff his hands in his pockets, but found that it only made his fingers hurt a tad bit more than they already were. It was already getting annoying. "I don't like it when people upset them, either."

"And that follows to - 'Blues doesn't like it when someone picks on his brother's friends', correct?"

Considering Outset had been the one originally to get beat up, Blues wasn't surprised she had made the connection so quickly. "Rock talks about Outset quite a bit. He hasn't been here long, but Rock likes him, so he must be a good kid." Then again, Rock liked everybody up until they proved different, but by now, he'd have figured out if Outset had different intentions other than to be a good friend. "Rock was going to step in, but I got there first, I guess."

"And I have to thank you for that," she said in a kind tone. She stood up, and held out a hand, poised and positioned for shaking. "Allow me to properly introduce myself..."

Blues lightly took the hand, not grasping her too tightly due to his injuries. His eyes widened, however, at the touch of her hand, and slowly, everything made sense. "... No. That's not necessary." He looked up at her, seeing her slightly confused look. "You're Rosalina. You're one of the Four Greats of Nintendo."

Rosalina gave a smile. "... And you're Proto Man. You look quite different without the helmet, my dear."

Letting go, Blues looked down at his hand, curious. "I think I've only ever been this confused once before - when I was activated. I have no idea what's going on right now." He looked up at her, frowning. "But I assume this is why Rock asked me to be there for that showdown."

With that, Rosalina gave a nod. "Everything will be explained. I wasn't expecting you to regain your memories when we shook hands. Perhaps we can talk on Saturday? Do you work?"

Blues shook his head. "No, it's my day off."

"Excellent," Rosalina said with a smile. She began to step down the stairs, Blues following. "May I see Rock? How's he doing?"

Blues began to explain as he led Rosalina down to the basement, seeing Roll finishing her cleaning up of the first aid equipment, and Rock still napping away. Though he didn't understand what was going on, he knew answers would come eventually, especially if Rosalina was involved.

And, elsewhere, in Rosalina's place, Reflet was giving Outset ice cream.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

"It wasn't a genuine ending to an episode, though," claimed Ness, as he stepped out of the school walking alongside Outset and Rock. "I mean, come on! That's not how you end a superhero show!"

Outset gave him a smile. "Well, maybe they hope to bring back the bad guy somehow. Shows always manage to do it somehow."

"Please," Rock brought in with a bright smile of his own - the first he'd spouted in a few days. "It seemed pretty final to me..."

"See! Even Rock's agreeing!" Ness argued.

Across the street, Blues stepped outside of the Knight High Academy, wearing the typical school uniform with the jacket undone, his backpack carefully strewn across a shoulder, and his hands still wrapped up in tape bandages. Through his shades, he watched as his brother wandered away toward the arcade with his two friends. Rock, however, noticed him, and smiled and waved toward his elder brother. Blues simply smiled back, knowing that everything was going to be okay this time around.

With that, he wandered off to home, whistling a familiar tune he hadn't uttered in twelve years.

* * *

_Authoress' Notes_

Fun mash-up #5: Proto Man and Link (with Proxi!) working together, where Proxi does literally 75% of all the talking. Mission accomplished.

This one is focused primarily on Proto Man / Blues. For one thing, I wanted to show a situation for both versions of him where Mega Man / Rock is in a bad situation and he has to get him out of it. Because, let's be real, Mega Man would have been dead long ago after they met if it weren't for Proto Man (aside from that whole "commit arson!" thing, but let's be real once again, that's the best part). In other news, Bass! He's not showing up again any time soon, so cherish him for now. In other, other news, Proxi makes her first appearance! She's not in the Sending Outset to Rosalina thing... for a reason. Sadfaaace.

_Interesting Info:  
_• ... I love writing for Proxi.  
• Someone remind me to actually have Link _talk on his own_ because he can do it, it's just Proxi does literally all of it, and I keep forgetting that he can do it and I really shouldn't be allowed to write for Link because then stuff like this happens.  
• Reason why it's Proxi instead of Navi: Personal reasons. I like Proxi's voice way more than I like Navi's, and because of this, I decided to use Proxi instead. She strikes me as more innocent and carefree than the more serious and demanding Navi, and I felt that she'd better suit this version of Link because of her personality. Her caring nature means that she'd connect well with others - just like she had with Proto Man, quickly reading that he was worried for Mega Man. She still gives advice, but she also gives praise for jobs well done.  
• See if you can come up for the reason why Dr. Light is not present. Read the Court's description of how the Reset works in the previous chapter, and think long and hard about why Dr. Light may not be present in the Light Siblings' life in Vidchester. Add it your review so I can see!  
• Well, it was originally going to be Vaati. But then I re-realized Bowser has kids. And they're Smashers.  
• This is not the last you've seen of the Gamepedia console. It will pop up many times throughout the flashbacks.  
• Roll retains a lot of her medical knowledge, so her taping up of Blues' injuries is expertly done, hence Rosalina's pointing out of it. She's mentioning it because she didn't realize that Roll would remember such knowledge, thinking it would have been overwritten by the Reset, much like how Rock's fighting knowledge was.  
• Yes, Rosalina and Blues / Proto Man already knew each other before this. Yes, that will be explained. No, not right away.  
• That tune Blues is whistling...? Whistle Concert.  
• List of people who remember the Game World, not counting Outset: Rosalina, Master Hand, Crazy Hand, Ness and finally, Blues. There's... at least _three _others. But they've not been seen in Vidchester yet. You have, however, seen _one of them _so far, in flashbacks.

_Reviews:_

lolruss555: Ah, _that _Ashley! WarioWare, my old _foe_, we meet again! Got it, I'll dump her down in the list of characters due to make an appearance. Can't guarantee the romance, sometimes, ships happen, you know? Who knows, maybe I'll end up shipping it too by complete mistake. As for the Zelda/Link/Reuniting with Outset subplot, no worries, no worries. Rosalina is his mama forever, and while he's interested in knowing them, chances are, he'll much prefer to stay with Rosalina at the end of the day. For Rosalina, it's what she was asked to do by Hylia when they discussed the plan and the situation, and it was Zelda's wish to meet her son the moment she had the chance. She'll know and understand that most likely he wouldn't be super duper, mega excited to move in with her and Link right away (they'd be _strangers_), but it's the joy of knowing him she'd look forward to, and the same goes for him. I have plans for that subplot that I'm excited to show and write about - especially in the terms of which mother he'd most likely _listen to _in a tough situation. *cough cough* Rosalina! *cough cough*

Paula-Ana: That is the best username on the planet, let me start with that. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapters so far! I hope you continue to enjoy them in the future. I went back and fixed that mistake that you pointed out. I'm not sure what happened there at all, but it's all fixed now. Thanks so much for pointing it out!


	5. 1x5 The Special One

**EPISODE 1x5:**

**THE SPECIAL ONE**

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

The kitchen table was a mess.

Usually, Rosalina was glad to have people over. Typically it was a very social event, which would require food, drink, and entertainment for all who had attended. What Rosalina was not enjoying this time around was the discussions that were taking place. Planning ahead was very important, especially in the case of disrupting the plans of Master Hand himself, but what they needed to do involved something they weren't entirely sure how to weaponize just yet.

"Mama Rosalina says that trust is the key," Outset explained, gaining a smile from Rosalina. "She says that trust between two people is what helps bring back the memories of the Game World."

"Well, it worked for the two of us," Ness pointed out with a smile, gesturing between him and Blues.

The meeting had to be created at the last minute, mostly because Rosalina wanted everyone to know the plan as soon as possible. She had spoken to Blues a couple of nights before, which was when she had woken him up by pure accident. It was a happy one, however. As it turned out, Ness and Blues already knew each other before the Reset as well (Ness mentioned a desert was involved), so no introductions were needed. All that was needed for Ness was an explanation about why Blues was now sporting bandages across the knuckles and fingers of both his hands, resulting in him telling the story of what had happened between Blues and Bowser Jr. after he had told them to leave.

Outset had lowered his head sadly at the story. He hadn't known Blues had gotten injured defending them, as Rosalina had kept it to herself.

"I wasn't even aware of the Reset before," Blues pointed out then, making Rosalina realize that he didn't necessarily count as a Smasher. "Rock must've known though, right? Otherwise, he wouldn't have told me to be there to help out with that mess at the Hyrulean Castle."

Ness gave a nod. "Rock was in on the plan. The Reset button was moved there because slaps in the face of royalty or something along those lines. Captain Falcon's words not mine." At Outset's curious look, Ness shrugged, just as confused. "I have no idea, either. Never did figure out how that guy's mind worked."

"No one ever said that Master Hand was a subtle Hand," Rosalina sighed. "He's always been one for flair when he gets a grand idea of payback to those that hurt him." She shook her head and put a smile on as she switched out one of the snacks on the table that the four were feasting on as they discussed plans. "By then, Outset had been born and I was long gone."

"Samus didn't write about any of that, she stops at the description of the plan," Outset brought up, looking upset. "I don't know anything beyond this one point where she talks about Zelda and Link announcing she was pregnant to the people of Castle Town."

Blues and Ness frowned at those words.

"... That was long before the Reset," Blues muttered, as he struggled for a moment to lift his drink. When injuries occur on fingers and knuckles, suddenly even everyday things become trying. "I mean, at most nine months, I'm pretty sure. But it wasn't completely event-less... in Capcom, at least. All I know is after that announcement, a whole bunch of murder trials happened where a defense attorney actually cross-examined a parrot, this weird guy in a top hat challenged Dr. Light to a puzzle game, and Amaterasu had a fit with the Street Fighter people that resulted in a whole city block catching fire."

Ness blinked. "... A fit?"

Blues shrugged as he accepted a straw from Rosalina so he wouldn't have to lift the glass. "Something about how they were breaking intercontinental law with Compile Heart or something like that." At the curious look from Outset, he gave a small smile. "There's more than just our land back home, you know. The world's a pretty big and diverse place."

"We'll have to look into what happened during those months between Samus' last entry and the Reset button being pressed," Rosalina voiced. "It might help us. We also need to decide who we should wake up next. Hylia's original plan was to wake up Zelda... but chances are, Master Hand knows this already."

With that stated and the three boys brought to a silence as they thought about it, Rosalina moved to finish cleaning up the dirt and used dishes. However, when she turned the tap of the sink, she suddenly found herself with water leaking all over the kitchen floor and up into the air, striking her down the front. Outset dodged to the side as the water streamed down the floor in a swift torrent. Blues swiftly picked up a free plate from the table to use as a shield from the spraying water, wincing slightly as pain spiked in his knuckles. Ness, meanwhile, ducked down with his hands over his head, a look of shock on his face as his baseball bat fell to the ground with a clash.

"Demon sink! Demon sink!" he cried out.

Rosalina quickly turned off the taps, and the water flow ended. "Well, I suppose that means my sink is out of order." She smiled over at Outset before frowning at the offending sink. "I wonder what happened?"

"This house has been empty for twelve years," Blues pointed out, lowering his makeshift shield. "It's not surprising your house would have some issues. Ours has a few broken appliances." He carefully placed the plate back down on the table, and worked at massaging the bandages that Roll had wrapped around his hands.

Ness bit his lip, clearly worried about the situation. "There's only one plumber in Vidchester, though."

This peaked the interest in Outset who turned to look at his two friends in eager excitement. "Really?! Do you mean Mario Mario himself?" Rosalina smiled at his excitement. His face lit up with excitement, a massive grin finding itself on his face. "I've read about him and all his exploits from Samus' journal! I even have some of the games of his adventures sitting upstairs! That guy is a _legend_!"

"Whoa, there, fan boy," Blues interjected, standing up from the table and placing his hands on Outset's shoulders. "You have to take it slow. Mario's not aware of who he is, remember? I wasn't even aware of who I was until just a few days ago." He smirked as Outset visibly deflated. "Point is, there's only one plumber."

"Well, I suppose we just have to hope he has some free time," Rosalina voiced.

It was quiet for a bit after that as Rosalina huffed to herself and moved to take the dishes out of the sink. Ness got up from the table and picked up his baseball bat, turning to the others. He put on the biggest grin and looked at each of them individually. Rosalina blinked back curiously, while Outset tilted his head to the side, baffled. Blues rose an eyebrow.

"You know," Ness began. "My cousin got attacked by his desk lamp once."

"Are you implying that the kitchenware is going to try and attack Rosalina next?" Blues asked in a straight yet somewhat condescending tone. The phrase was enough to send Outset into laughter.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Fireworks launched over the Mushroom Kingdom's castle as banners were held up high in the neighbouring Toad Town. Today marked the forty-forth annual Friendship Festival, so invented by Peach's own late father so long ago to celebrate the beauty that was friendship. It was a grandeur event that the Princess held high in tradition and often invited her own friends to celebrate the event.

This year was no different.

Toads of all sizes and colours raced about the streets setting up decorations for the festival. Guests from all over Nintendo had arrived to take part in the festival - people from Fire Emblem were setting up stands, with a few people from Earthbound wandering around in a hazy daze as they stared on in amazement at the Legend of Zelda townspeople as they played music and danced in celebration. Princess Peach had always desired for the festival to be a grand one - her major dream was for one day to have people from all over the world to come to the Mushroom Kingdom simply for the Friendship Festival.

Now if she could just get people from _outside _of Nintendo to come, that would be the most amazing first step. The truth was, Peach wanted the Festival to be a sign of trust, peace, and prosperity among friends, countries, and companies. This year she had sent out invitations to a few of Capcom and Sega's greatest heroes that she had heard tales of from travelers that wandered the world in search of whatever it was they were looking for. She wasn't sure that they would come, but she did know at least one of her friends would be attending.

"Princess Peach!" came Toadsworth's voice, and she turned to look at him in glee. "Mario has arrived!"

"Oh, of course he has!" Peach chirped cheerfully. "He's never missed a festival."

Toadsworth led Peach down the ornate hallway that led to the main foyer of the castle. There, once the door opened and Peach stepped inside, she was greeted with the sight of Mario standing there, his hat in his hands as he awaited her arrival. Next to him was Luigi, in a similar position of his hat held before his chest. A Toad dressed in armour stepped forward, slamming his lance against the ground.

"Now announcing, Princess Peach!"

"Princess," began Mario, as she stepped up to him. "The festival is turning out beautifully this year."

Princess Peach smiled at Mario as she held out a hand, which he carefully took. As he led her out into the courtyard, she returned, "I'm glad to hear that. This year, I sent out invitations to many heroes I've heard about - it may just be our most exciting festival yet."

"Still trying to make it international?" Luigi mused as he stepped up beside the two of them. "I can name a few people in our world and company that might dislike that decision, Princess... One of them starts with the letter 'B'..."

"Oh, Bowser can turn himself purple for all I care," Mario voiced.

"Mario..." Princess Peach stressed. "Anyways, it's a noble goal and it was my father's original intent of the Friendship Festival. I invited a few of the people that I feel would be most interested - Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega, Mega Man from Capcom... I even tried inviting some warriors I've heard of from Square Enix and they unfortunately explained that..."

"Princess!" came a sudden voice, and the group of three turned immediately to the source to see a Toad running up the path in glee, being followed by none other than Sonic the Hedgehog. "Princess, one of our guests have arrived!"

"Sonic the Hedgehog!" Princess Peach greeted, as Sonic stepped up to the three of them. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance at last! I trust your journey to Nintendo and the Mushroom Kingdom of _Super Mario Bros._ was enjoyable?"

The blue hedgehog crossed his arms and gave the kingdom a glance. "It was actually quite nice, since you sent a private jet and all that. Must say - your kingdom is cute. I think my friend Amy might like it here."

"Well, as this is a Friendship Festival, after this, you and your friends will be most welcome to our kingdom and game," Princess Peach insisted with a smile. "I do hope you enjoy your stay here with us."

Sonic gave the three of them a thumbs up and a big grin. "No problemo! I'm treating this like a high-end vacation, Princess." He crossed his arms then and his smile turned into a smirk. "Can't say I've been out this far from Sega anyways, so it's really exciting."

"Well, that's wonderful!" Princess Peach said cheerfully. She glanced between Mario and Luigi for a moment before turning to look at Sonic once again. "Mario and Luigi here would be more than glad to help you if you ever need any help during your stay here. It's our job, as your hosts that is, to make sure that your stay here is as enjoyable as possible."

As if to make it obvious that the Princess was dragging them into this, both Mario and Luigi gave the biggest grins of their lives and nodded to reassure the Sega Hedgehog that what she said was true. Mario even removed his hat formally for a moment.

"It's a pleasure to have you here!" Mario voiced.

Sonic nodded. "Great! Though, I'll have you know - I'm pretty good at figuring stuff out on my own, you hear?"

"We wouldn't expect you to be begging us at every beck and call," Luigi said with a laugh. "We know what it's like. It's much more fun to try and work it out yourself." He gave a sort of bow. "I'm Luigi, by the way. Mario there is my older brother."

"Pleasure!" Sonic smiled.

"But of course!" came a sudden voice.

The Princess put a hand to her mouth. "Gosh, is that Mega Man already? Dr. Light told me that it'd be evening when his son arrived..." Mario and Luigi, meanwhile, were glancing around the festival grounds almost in suspicion. "It couldn't be Pac-Man either, as Namco is a whole five timezones away from us..."

"_Yikes!_" screamed Luigi all of a sudden, and everyone turned to see what had spooked him. Up above the group was Bowser, sitting in his floating fortress, giving his signature laugh. "Bowser!"

With a push of a button on his console that the group couldn't see, Bowser launched a grappling hook at the princess. It scooped her up into the fortress and he gave another laugh that simply spoke of his excitement. "Once again, I have the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom! She is mine! Once and for all!" He pointed a claw at the group. "And who here is willing to stand up to me, Bowser, King of the Koopas?"

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

The phone book Blues brought in from home later that day was old and worn, but he promised that the names and numbers hadn't changed since the day it was printed. He explained that the town hadn't really changed or done much until Rosalina had arrived, so chances that one had changed their phone number between the day Rosalina had arrived and the day they were sitting in her living room flipping through the phone book, were slim and very low. She couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty at his words, feeling that her arrival was what sparked the very bullies that had hurt Rock, and caused Blues to injure his hands in the attempt to defend him.

She found solace in the fact that she knew Blues didn't blame her for what happened.

"The best thing to do is call him when you have a chance," he was saying as he flipped through the ads carefully. She could tell even with his being careful, even so much as moving his fingers was causing him slight pain. "From what I know, he's bound to accept, but it might take a few days to get back to you. Though... Roll was telling me when I told her about it that business has been slow for him from what she'd heard from Toadley, so it could even be tomorrow."

"Well, I hope he's free," she said with a sigh. "Goodness, why isn't Luigi a plumber to help him out with his work?" She frowned, crossing her arms. "He is one back home."

"Luigi works at Fast Wario's with me, believe it or not," Blues huffed, shaking his head. Rosalina watched as his eyes rolled beneath his triangle shades. "I have no idea why he works there, considering he does nothing but laze around." He skimmed past a few more pages before finally stopping. "Here we are." Rosalina peered over his shoulder to look at the ad that he had found, where he was tapping a bandaged finger.

"That's quite odd," she commented, reading the words. "His company has the same name..."

Blues didn't immediately respond. "... We have Light as our family name, and we still have the special names Dr. Light himself gave us."

She figured he had a point. "True... Master Hand clearly wasn't original when he made this town, was he? If anything, it makes my job just a little more easier. Zelda wouldn't be too hard to find if she kept her entire name." At that, Rosalina frowned. "Then again... he could have easily changed a few names around, too."

"Pitwell and Darkwell come to mind first, being Pit and Dark Pit. Toadley too. Pretty sure he's Princess Peach's main Toad," Blues said, ending with a scoff. Rosalina wondered if scoffing was a family trait. From what she recalled, Roll had done a lot of it, too, when she had visited their home a few days prior. "But I think, for the most part, everyone's names are in tact. Your next door neighbour is Marth Lowell, for example."

Rosalina blinked at this. "I knew our neighbours were Lowells, but I figured it would be Chrom and... speaking of which, he's not with his wife, nor is Robin with his."

Blues shook his head. "A lot of people were split from their spouses, it seems. I don't even think Zelda and Link know each other, to be honest. I think it's a miracle I'm even living with Rock and Roll, or that Tango is even here." She watched as he bit his lip. "... All things considering. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up the facade..." Those last words had been muttered, but she still heard them perfectly fine. They caused her heart to ache, but she understood his reasoning. Dr. Light wasn't even in Vidchester. Blues had to somehow provide for everything for himself, Rock and Roll on a part-time student's salary, and it was obvious that he was having a difficult time with it. It worried Rosalina more than she was willing to admit out loud, worried not just for his siblings' health, but especially his own. He was a dear friend of hers - and he was clearly thinner than he used to be.

"I'm sure everything will work out in the end," Rosalina assured him, praying for their health and safety, and doing some silent plotting about their situation. Once she had finished swallowing down her fears, she took some nearby paper and began to write down Mario's number (714-1983), where Blues' finger still sat.

As she did this, Blues turned to watch her for a moment as she penned down the name and number. "So, what's this plan with finding Zelda as soon as you can?" He tilted his head slightly to the side at her sudden concerned expression. "What?"

"... It was a promise I made to Hylia and Zelda," she explained, as she prepared to pick up the phone. "I know he's probably not going to be happy with me, but one of the orders I was given when I decided to take care of him, was to bring Outset to his mother."

His slightly disgusted expression filled her with shame. She knew how he felt about it right away - no questions needed to be asked on her end, and no explanations were required on his. "... _You're_ his mother whether they like it or not. Are you really that willing to give him away so quickly, after _twelve years _of being the only mother he knew?"

If she had to be honest with herself? "... No... I'm not." She looked down at the numbers on the phone in her hands.

Before she could even press the "7" that started Mario's number, it rang, startling her and Blues as they both jumped at the sudden sound. Frantic, she pressed the "talk" button right away and held the phone to her ear.

"_Rosalina?_" came the voice on the other end. She had a bit of a problem placing a name to it, but it turned out to not be needed. "_It's me, Christian! Oh, I'm so happy you were there to answer! Uuum... you are Rosalina, correct? Oh, what a problem it would be if you weren't._"

"No worries, Christian, it's me," she said with a slight laugh. "Is something wrong?"

"_Oh yes, oh yes... I'd say so,_" he replied. "_I need articles up the whazoo, and as it turns out, the other main article writer can't come in Monday because, and I quote, 'reasons'! Bah, remind me to tell Lute that that's not a valid reason to drop out of work for a whole day, regardless of what she thinks or how interesting the praying mantis that she found in her backyard is. Seriously, some things never change. So, long story made so much more shorter, I need you to come in on Monday to work out a night shift with me to write up some articles if you don't mind..._"

"Well, I..." But it was too late.

"_Great! Find a babysitter! I'll see you tomorrow!_" With that, Christian hung up the phone and was gone.

Rosalina found herself looking at the phone in disappointment. With a sigh, she placed it down and then lounged in her chair in defeat, Blues watching her with a bewildered expression. "Well, that is just wonderful..."

Blues rose an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"I've been called in for a late night shift on Monday, and Reflet is unavailable because she and Robin have previous plans concerning blanket forts and popcorn and something about a six movie marathon..." Rosalina explained, sighing. She missed the more responsible tactician twins. "Which means I don't have anyone to watch over Outset."

"Well, I'm afraid I can't," Blues admitted. "I work that day and Roll's decided I don't sleep enough, so she's probably going to drug me when I get home to make me fall asleep. I'd be useless."

Rosalina gave him a concerned look. "Your sister sounds like quite the tyrant indeed."

At those words he laughed. "Oh, trust me, with her memories she'd be a million times worse. She's just looking out for me, that's all." He gave her a smirk then. "What about a neighbour? Think you can call on one of them?"

The suggestion made her think. There were quite a few neighbours she had talked to, but none of them from what she recalled were good with children. There was, however, one that she remembered being quite good with the children Smashers back in the day. Yes, he'd do quite well indeed... "Well, there is Marth Lowell, is there not?"

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Mario's eyes narrowed at the sight of Bowser. No festival or any kind of event ever went by without a visit from the Koopa King. Sonic, confused and concerned, stepped up next to the plumber and gave him a look.

"Friend of yours?"

"Hardly."

The exchange was good enough for Sonic, as he immediately knelt down in a battle stance, prepared for the worst and cocky for the best. Mario and Luigi, meanwhile, stepped into more defensive poses, as all three watched Bowser carefully as he laughed from his fortress, Princess Peach tight in his grasp. Bowser gave one last chuckle, as one of his children hopped up on the banister of the flying fortress - Bowser Jr. himself.

"Bwahahaha! We have Mama Peach, now, losers!" chimed Bowser the Younger.

Bowser picked up his son and put him down on the ground of the Fortress all with a calm expression. "Listen up, Mario! I have captured the beautiful and vexing Princess Peach - if you wish to get her back, you have to conquer my maze deep in the plains of 1-1." He pointed in the general direction that 1-1 was in from the castle, a sneer on his face. "... If you think you're up to it! Bwahahahaha!"

Alongside him, his beloved son began to evilly laugh as well, just for good measure.

"Good luck, Mario Suckers!" And with that, the Koopa King, his air ship, and the Princess was gone, blasting off into the sky and away from the Mushroom Kingdom and the Friendship Festival.

Toad came running in immediately from somewhere in the distance, rushing up to Mario in a panic. "Oh, Mario! It's horrible! Please go save the Princess!"

Mario grabbed hold of Toad's shoulders, hoping to calm him down. "Of course I will, I won't leave her in Bowser's grasp! You know this."

"What do you want to do, bro?" Luigi asked, kneeling down next to the now sobbing Toad. "Rush in, guns blazing? Come up with a battle plan...? Devise at least _some _kind of strategy before we go in to that maze? I wish we had a printout of what it looked like..."

"Yeah, well sadly, it looks like he wants you guys to do things the hard way," Sonic pointed out, tapping a foot. "But, the princess has been kidnapped and that doesn't fly with me, not sure about the two of you."

"It doesn't sit well with us, either," Mario commented. "We've long since been her protectors since Bowser first started kidnapping her."

"Well, that's great - but why the arguing of battle plans and taking our time?" Sonic asked, sounding annoyed. "We have to act fast if we're going to save her!"

"I just think..." Luigi started, getting ready to intervene in case Sonic decided to get physical. "... that we need to be cautious. It's easy to get lost in mazes!"

"Hoo, there, sonny boy!" came a sudden voice, causing Luigi's eyes to widen. "It seems you're having a bit of a problem with your local troubling turtle." Professor E. Gadd was who it was, and he approached with a distinct happiness that made Luigi nervous. As the little old man fixed his glasses, he looked upon the three of them with a suspicious gleam in his eye. "What seems to be the problem, Luigi?"

It was Mario that answered, turning to E. Gadd with a frown. "Bowser's kidnapped Peach and challenged the three of us to step through a maze he apparently has."

E. Gadd fixed his glasses. "A maze, you say? Well, it just so happens I have a device that might be able to assist you in your endeavors! You see, I've been working with a friend of mine over at Compile Heart on designing a device that would be able to lead you anywhere you need to go, sort of like a Quest Arrow - like what they have in Bethesda or Ubisoft. Anyways, don't mind my rambling, but why don't you try the Gamindustri Positioning Scream?" He pulled out from somewhere... behind him, a strange device that looked like a Nintendo 2DS system, with a long antenna with a large bulb at the end sticking out from the top. A strange logo sat on the back.

"Can we shorten that to GPS so I don't have to say a mouthful?" Sonic immediately asked.

E. Gadd gave a laugh. "Well, of course, whatever makes you happy, sonny!" He fiddled with the device some more before he handed it over to Luigi. "Anyways, so the Gamindustri Positioning Scream should be able to help you reach your goal. I have it synched to Bowser's airship, so it should lead you through the maze and to it. But be careful with it! It's still in primary testing."

"Primary testing?!" Mario asked, slightly freaked out. "You're giving us something that you haven't even properly tested yet?!"

"Well, of course not, Mario, sonny!" E. Gadd said with a laugh. "It has been tested! … Mostly. But a field test like this would be beneficial to the product's design and ability. This is a rare opportunity I know Vert would be most happy with if I was able to send in a form detailing how it worked out on the field in an emergency." He gave a grin. "Good luck, boys! Go save the princess!" With that, he turned on his heel, and walked away.

"That guy is a few screws loose of an entire backyard deck if you ask me," Sonic muttered, causing Mario and Luigi to chuckle. "So, Luigi, seeing as he handed it to you, do you think you can figure out how to work it?"

Luigi fiddled with the device carefully, giving it a look over. Now that he had a better view of it, he could see that the logo on the back was E. Gadd's typical sign, with the infamous Power symbol of Compile Heart and Imagination Factory added into it. "It can't be much more complicated than the Poltergust 5000 or the Game Boy Horror. A little more advanced, but I'm sure I can figure it out."

"Good enough for me," Sonic decided.

"Me too," Mario agreed. "Let's go find that overgrown turtle."

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

_"Princess Zelda, at my next visit to the Hyrule Castle, told me of her latest exploit with the farmboy Link. She explained to me that together, with Fidel, Prince Marth, and the Light Robots, they had discovered a bandit's camp in Snowpoint Mountain. They had all determined the same thing to me – that the bandits residing inside of it were most certainly not of Nintendo." _

The changing point of Samus' view on the changing of the world, no doubt. Rosalina sighed as she read the words that Samus had left behind for Outset to read – she really went straight to the point. They had a distinctness, she noted, as she turned the page to see the rest of the story. Sounds from upstairs, however, caused her to look up. She had been sitting in the living room waiting for the arrival of Mario, who had told her he'd be able to make appearance later that day, so Blues had taken Ness and Outset and dragged them upstairs complaining about the resisting they had been doing.

It seemed Blues had an escapee. Outset was pouting, looking at her between the rungs of the stairwell banister.

"Is something the matter, dear?" she asked him cheerfully. "Blues and Ness can't already be boring, can they? You were so excited when I told you they'd be visiting today."

"Mama," Outset began, his voice all mopey. His tone made her lose her smile. "Blues says I can't be down here when Mario comes, is that true?"

"Well, seeing as Mario will be working on our sink, it would be a good idea to stay out of the way," she confirmed. She stood up and approached him, wrapping her hand around one of his. "Why don't you start up a game or two with Blues and Ness? You're the host, remember? Try and have some fun. I think Blues could use it, he'd been so stressed over what had happened with Rock."

"But he can't handle a game controller yet, Mama," Outset whined. "He could barely lift his glass when we were all at the table! I don't want to hurt him..."

"Then why don't you show them a board game, or your Tokens?" she suggested. At the idea of showing them his Tokens, his eyes lit up. "You know, I think Ness will be very happy to see his stone again."

"I think so, too!" With that, he turned to rush up the stairs. He stomped his way up each one before coming into his room, where he found Blues raiding his book collection and Ness playing his Game Boy Advance. "I'm back!"

"There you are!" Ness sighed, dramatically falling backwards onto the rug. "I found your _Sapphire _game. Nice team!"

"Mama played a bit of it too. Most of the really good ones are her catches," Outset admitted, taking down a few of his Tokens from where they sat, on guard. "I have a few things I want to show you guys!"

Blues looked up from the book he was carefully handling and flipping through absentmindedly. "Oh?"

To start off, Outset placed down his ocarina before Ness.

When Ness looked up from the game he was playing, he immediately put it down. "I remember this! This is Link's!" He picked it up carefully, giving a smile. "Aw man, you still have this?!"

"I didn't know it was his, Mama never told me," Outset admitted. "She did say one was from my father. But yeah, I still have them all. She said they were from people who loved me, so I figured I should hold on to them. I planted the nut, and the tag is on my door, and..."

"And my stone?" Ness asked immediately, cutting him off.

"So pushy, Ness," Blues commented, taking the Ocarina from him. His weak fingers meant he had to grasp it carefully with both hands, but he made sure not to drop it. "I'm sure he's going to give it to you."

"It's right here," Outset voiced, heading over to where he had left it near the pot with the nut. It had since sprouted since he had planted it, a tiny little green sprig full of life. Rosalina wasn't sure how it had managed to stay alive for so long, but Outset liked to think it was game mechanics. He immediately held it out for Ness to take.

Ness immediately held it to his ear, as Blues looked on in confusion. "It still has the melodies on it, aw, that's so amazing..."

"So, how does he have these?" Blues asked. "Link always kept his Ocarina on him at all times."

"It was Peach's idea," Ness explained, after he was done humming along with the first song. "She thought that they might help Outset to sort of restart our memories. The storybook was hers, actually. It's from her, Mario and Luigi." The next song began, but by then he had placed the Stone before him. "Samus almost didn't do it, you know. But Fox convinced her to."

"I'm glad she did," Outset laughed. "After I woke you up, I went back and flipped through it and then I found out who Rock, Roll and Blues were."

Blues scoffed. "You didn't know originally?"

He shook his head. "No... the only _Mega Man _game I have is one of the _Mega Man X _ones." To prove his point, he wandered over to his television were his systems sat. He pulled out one of his games, and immediately showed it to Blues. "I found it in this old pawn shop my Mama was going through. We buy old systems and games from them. She said it was... important that I play them."

Blues almost grabbed it to take a look, but eventually decided not to. "Never heard of these ones."

"Maybe they're a successor series?" Ness offered. "Like how Lucas is a successor to me, or like every _Legend of Zelda _game and story ever except for, like, three."

Outset shrugged as he placed it back. "It takes place a long time after the ones Blues is from. The main hero, X, is a Reploid who joins a resistance. He's helped by this guy in red named Zero, and they go around blasting things and saving the day." He wandered back over to his books and pulled out the storybook. "This is one of my favourite Tokens, though. You said it was from Peach?"

While Blues pondered the existence of X, Ness gave a nod. "Yeah, she carried it around with her everywhere after the castle in Fire Emblem fell. No one knows where she got it from, but she doodled in it once."

"Yeah, there's a message for me at the beginning," Outset revealed, opening it up and flipping through it. "Check it out, though! There's all kinds of stories of Mario in here."

"Oh hey!" Ness voiced, stopping Outset. "I heard this story! Aw man, it was a gem - Mario had a field day telling us about it, when Sonic visited the Mushroom Kingdom for the Friendship Festival?"

Blues snapped out of his trance at that. "Friendship Festival? Wasn't Rock invited to that once?"

"More than once," Ness corrected. "He was late the first time. Kind of sucks because Bowser kidnapped Peach and then..."

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Luigi led the way through the maze, using the GPS as his main sense of direction. So far, it was running flawlessly as he tried to navigate his way through the chaos that was the maze, as Mario and Sonic fought off against Goombas, Koopas, and one case of a stray Square Enix creature.

"How did that get there, anyways?!" Sonic barked out loud as they wandered away from its remains. "Sheesh - Princess Peach's gonna have to have a chat with whoever's head of Square Enix these days." He crossed his arms as they began their trek again, Mario giving a sigh.

"Pretty sure that was a _Final Fantasy _thing, I'll let Princess Peach know once we're alone. She'll tell Rosalina, and then Rosalina will bring it up to Hylia."

Sonic gave Mario a curious look. "Is that the current Head of Nintendo?"

Mario nodded as Luigi halted, gasping at the sight before them. The other two looked over to the startling sight of what appeared to be a rather disturbing crash of a vehicle into one of the maze's walls. Everyone paused for a moment, watching as the smoke emitted from the engine, before Sonic snapped out of it first.

"I'm going to see if anyone got hurt!" With that, he zoomed over at top speed, comically yanking with all his might against the door of the vehicle, trying to get it open. Mario rushed over immediately to help. Working together, the two were able to get the door open, and by then Luigi joined in to drag the driver out. Thankfully, he seemed okay, so the three were relieved, especially when he sat up.

It was Captain Falcon, and he looked rather furious, as he stood up and pointed a finger at Mario. "Whatever your Princess decided to do with your landscaping, tell her to knock it off! That hedge came from nowhere and I ran into it!" His voice came out loud in a bark, raised to such a volume that the others jumped back. "She owes me a repair job on the Blue Falcon!"

Mario and Luigi stepped back. Sonic blinked on in amazement.

"We're very sorry, Douglas!" Mario exclaimed. "It was Bowser, though, not the Princess! We're not even sure how he summoned this maze, to begin with..." He turned to his brother, who had returned to fiddling with the GPS. "Luigi is using a device we got from Professor E. Gadd. We're trying to find Bowser - he kidnapped the Princess again!"

Captain Falcon scoffed. "Again, huh? The two of you need to amp up your game. If Bowser can kidnap her from right in front of you, then I think you're slipping."

Mario made sure to give a glare before turning to Luigi. "How much farther until we've reached the Princess?"

Luigi checked the GPS before yelping and turning around. Everyone looked to where he had turned, and saw the large castle before them. It didn't suit Bowser's typical taste for castles, and had a large tower that stood out from the rest of it. Situated at the very top was Princess Peach herself, looking down from the bottom towards the moat the surrounded the castle, Bowser standing next to her. Sonic crossed his arms and looked toward Mario, narrowing his eyes.

"Please tell me Bowser's not gonna push her into the water."

"Oh, he wouldn't," Luigi immediately stated. "Despite what most people think, Bowser and Peach are actually... kind of... friends?"

"Oddly enough," Mario sighed. "Bowser has a crush on her, and so he constantly kidnaps her to spend some time with her even though he'd be allowed to hang out in the castle. The reason _we _get involved is because kidnapping the princess is, unfortunately for him, _against the law._"

Captain Falcon eyed the two of them with an odd look. "Seriously?"

Mario said nothing, instead he lead the way through the yard and towards the front door of the castle, a look of pure determination on his face. He had done this many times before, conquered the castle, terrorized the Goombas and the Koopas inside, braved lava, spikes, and Thwomps. He could do this again, he could do this thousands of times over, no matter what the personal cost and gain. He was going to...

"Mario!" called Peach as the four of them approached the castle. "Mario, something was wrong with Bowser!"

"I was not myself!" Bowser called down. "It's Master Hand!

Just as Bowser had announced this, the large Hand had risen from behind the castle before them, laughing all the way. Hundreds of the Polygons that Master Hand had control of came pouring out of the castle, and the four heroes immediately got to work with clearing them out. Mario kept his eyes on Master Hand the entire time, wanting to stop the Hand, since he had controlled a friend of the princess, and instigated her kidnapping.

With his grand jumping skills, Mario jumped up the castle wall and began to run at top speed along the roof towards the Hand. Master Hand cackled at his attempt to punch him, as he swerved out of the way, causing Mario to land on a different part of the roof. Mario swerved around once more to attack him, but Master Hand just did the same thing once again, and this time Mario nearly fell off the castle completely, saved only when Sonic appeared out of nowhere and caught his hand, bringing him back onto the roof.

"How about we take this sucker together?" the Sega Hedgehog offered.

In response, Mario smirked. "Sounds like a plan to me!"

Together, the two of them turned towards Master Hand, who was busy watching as his Polygons attempted to overtake Captain Falcon, which was going about as well as anyone would expect. Any Nintendo could tell you - messing with Captain Falcon was suicide. The man had the strength of twenty Golden Axes (according to those in Animal Crossing), the power of Arceus himself (according to those in Pokémon) and was basically undefeated in nearly every tournament he ever participated in (Punch Out!), with one exception. Samus could kick his ass, but then again, sometimes he won that fight, too.

Using Mario has a springboard, Sonic jumped himself up toward the Hand, preparing to Spin Dash him. Mario ran so he was behind the Hand, and he jumped up as well, prepared to punch. Both of their attacks hit, the Hand startled by their sudden cooperation.

Shaken, Master Hand turned to the both of them, stunned. "_Why? Why are you working together?_"

"What's so wrong about that?" Sonic sneered. "Nothing wrong at all, that's what."

"_But you're Sega! That thing there is Nintendo!_" Master Hand complained. "_No, no, this is all wrong! You shouldn't be willing to work alongside things from the different companies! Intermingling is wrong!_" Clearly distressed, the Hand turned and ran, escaping the scene altogether. Following after him, what was once hundreds of Polygons, only five ran off.

Mario narrowed his eyes. Whatever had happened here was not a good sign for things to come.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

By the time Mario had arrived, the sounds of a video game was streaming from Outset's room, so Rosalina figured that the boys were completely distracted. Or, at least Ness and Outset were - considering Blues, in Outset's mind, was banned from handling a controller. She kept her distance as Mario worked his magic on her sink, amazed that he had been allowed to retain his typical plumbing knowledge from the Reset. It was news to her, but then again, Lute still retained her photographic memory, and Reflet still had that Plegian cloak in the closet.

Mario was muttering to himself as he fiddled with her sink, so she kept to the living room, still picking through Samus' journal. She had finished the last recount she had been reading, and had moved on to another that she vaguely remembered. That is, until Mario suddenly spoke up.

"So, Rosalina Sirius, right?"

"That's right," Rosalina voiced in response.

"You're new in town - my brother saw your son at his work not that long ago," Mario explained. "So, what do you think of Vidchester so far? It's a small town, but I like to think that it's a nice place full of nice people." He stood up from his work and approached her, wiping his hands with a dishtowel that he had brought with him. "I hope everyone's been treating you alright?"

Rosalina gave a smile. "I'm enjoying it. I've already made a few friends, and so has Outset."

Mario replied with a smile of his own. Rosalina remembered that one specifically - he tended to use it for his brother, or Peach, or her in the past. "That's good. Like i said, there's lots of nice people here, and nothing really happens here, so it's kind of sleepy. But..."

Before he could finish, footsteps began to come from upstairs and down the steps. Rosalina turned to see Outset coming down cradling Peach's storybook in his hands, Nesss and Blues following after him. Mario gave a slight laugh before he turned to return to the sink.

"Mama!" Outset chimed. "Look!"

With one swift movement, Samus' journal was picked up from her lap and replaced with the storybook. Rosalina looked down at the pictures fondly, before she noticed where Outset was pointing. There was a picture of her, right there in the crowd of the Friendship Festival, on the page with Princess Peach celebrating her return after her kidnapping, Mario, Sonic, Captain Falcon and Luigi standing at her side. She was more off to the side of the crowd, Polari in her hands, watching the scene unfold.

"Oh, well, what do you know," Rosalina said softly. "And here I thought they didn't notice me."

"Blues and I were going through it while Ness played a game on my GameCube!" Outset explained.

"You guys have some pretty cool games!" Ness observed.

Blues shrugged, ignoring Ness completely to continue the important matter. "There were a few with you in it, but we didn't think you were involved in the Friendship Festival one with Sonic in it. Ness didn't mention it all when he gave us a run down he got once before."

"So, Rosalina..." came another voice, and the gang turned to see Mario step into the kitchen. "I fixed the problem with your sink, and I... Oh?" He paused at the sight of the storybook that Rosalina had now taken to holding by the cover. He approached slowly, eyeing it carefully. "Why, I think I had the exact same storybook in my youth!"

"What," Ness deadpanned. "Really?"

Mario gave a nod. "Yes, yes, I have memories of me and my brother laying down in our beds, and my mother would come upstairs holding that storybook and read us a tale... May I see?"

Rosalina closed the storybook and handed it to him, despite the worried look come from Ness. It was hard to determine what Blues was feeling about the situation - he was always wearing those shades at every opportunity he had, after all. It didn't help his light sensitivity had traveled over. Thankfully, and heart conditions he could have had thanks to that power core of his, _hadn't_. But the man of the hour, Mario, was now flipping through the storybook, nodding all the while as he muttered the words like he knew them by heart. Everyone watched with anticipation, not sure what letting him see the book was going to do.

And then he blinked. And then he blinked again.

Mario handed the book back to Rosalina, looking quite dazed. He put a hand to his head for a moment. "Ooooh..."

"Are you alright, Mr. Mario?" Outset asked out of worry.

"Oh, I'll be fine," Mario assured him, "and just Mario is fine. But, goodness, that took the wind out of me. It all came rushing back at once."

Ness laughed.

"So, how are you doing, Rosalina?" Mario asked. "This boy here can't be Outset. He's not tall enough." After an exasperated "Hey!" from Outset, Mario continued. "And Ness! Your poor baseball bat..."

"I know, the cool logo's gone," Ness wailed in despair. "I think Ninten has my actual baseball bat, so I'm going to raid his house next time I visit him."

Mario laughed at that and turned to Blues, looking confused. "You... however..."

"Proto Man," Blues greeted. "Mega Man's older brother. Just call me Blues."

"Blues," Mario tried, giving a nod. "Nice to meet you, I'm Mario. I've met your brother. He's quite nice!"

Rosalina stood up then, a smile on her face. "Well, this puts a damper in what we thought we understood," she said cheerfully. "We were thinking trust was the key to unlocking the memories... yet all you had to do was flip through Peach's storybook." She looked at the cover of it, seeing the paintings of home and the Mushroom Kingdom. "I wish I knew where Queen Mary was here."

"Oh, you mean Great Grandma?" Ness voiced. "She lives with Ninten."

"Ninten?" Outset looked at him immediately. "His house is that Neighbourhood Watch Committee sign on the door, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Blues scoffed. "Because Mary's always looking out the window."

Mario shook his head softly. "Knowing where she is is different than knowing if she knows," he wisely said. He then turned to Rosalina, a smile on his face. "Tell you what, I'll give you a discount for the sink. It was an easy enough repair, so nothing to be too concerned about."

"Oh, well that's good to hear," Rosalina said with a soft smile of her own. "Thank you, Mario."

"No, no," Mario laughed. "Thank _you_."

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

"At last!" Princess Peach chirped with glee as she stood on the stage at the Festival. "We may continue the Friendship Festival!"

This time, the group was joined with Captain Falcon and Bowser himself, a small handful of his Koopalings standing beside him like they were guests of honour. The crowd of Toads and other Nintendo characters cheered from the courtyard, all happy to see Peach returned safe and sound. Music began to play from off in the distance, and Mario could see a small band from Hyrule had made the trip to provide some live entertainment. He gave a smile, turning to his brother to share it. They were both relieved it didn't get as bad as it sometimes did when Bowser kidnapped the Princess.

Peach was assisted down from the stage by Bowser, who then took his leave to take his Koopalings around the festival before he returned to spend some time with the Princess. She giggled as she watched them drag the Koopa King away before turning to Mario, holding out a single gold coin.

"May I offer you my first Friendship Coin this year, Mario?" she asked.

Mario was surprised. He then smiled, accepting it. "Of course, Princess Peach. I'm honoured." He admired it for a short moment, seeing the etchings of smiles and two holding hands on it.

"Oh!" Luigi suddenly voiced. "There's E. Gadd! I better tell him how the GPS worked." He turned to Mario then, and smiled. "I'll talk to you later, bro. Until then, have some fun, okay!" With that, the green plumber scurried off to meet with E. Gadd, who was speaking with a Toad.

There were a number of Toads in armour walking around the courtyard with baskets full of the same kind of coins that the Princess had given Mario. Every once in a while, someone attending the festival would approach and ask for a coin, which they would receive. Then they would approach a friend and offer it, just as the Princess had done with Mario. It was happening all over, just nothing but happiness and expressions of friendship everywhere you looked.

Sonic smiled at the antics of everyone around him. "Seems people take this Coin thing pretty seriously here."

"The Friendship Coin's a tradition for the Friendship Festival," Captain Falcon explained as he crossed his arms. "You take a Friendship Coin, and you offer it to the people that you consider your most important friends. Peach gets three, everyone else gets how many they need from those Toads with the baskets. Some, like me, don't really participate in the Coin thing but most of the Mushroom Kingdom and _Super Mario _people do."

Sonic looked up at him in surprise. "Really? Maybe I should get a hold of one of those coins and bring it back to Tails."

"I need to grab a few for myself, anyways," Mario said, beginning to walk over to one of the Toads. "Why don't you join me?"

"Sure!"

Princess Peach smiled as she watched the two walk away, and she turned to Captain Falcon. "I'm glad that today ended up like it has. I'm so relieved that Sonic came!"

"Oh, so you invited him?" Captain Falcon asked.

The Princess hummed. It was odd because the Captain figured that humming as a response was more a Rosalina thing. "My father wished for this Festival to be an international thing - to one day feature many Companies united. That's why I invited Sonic and Mega Man. That's why I was hoping they would come."

"Here you are, boys!" stated the Toad, meanwhile, as he handed the requested Coins to them, before wandering over to another Toad approaching.

Mario pocketed all of his except for one, as he watched Sonic finger the one meant for Tails carefully.

"Next time, I'm so bringing him to this Festival," Sonic decided. "I think he'd like it here, too." With that, he spirited the Coin away to his inter-dimensional pockets. "The Princess wouldn't mind, would she?"

"I think she'd be glad to have another guest," Mario assured him, before holding out the Coin. "Now, how about I offer this one to you? My first one of the year."

Sonic stood there, amazed, before accepting it with a smile. "Sure, Mario. I accept!"

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Sonic, as he stood by a stand eating a chili dog as the sun set later that day, smiled to himself as he took one more bite to finish it off and turned around to look at his new companion. "Man, why is it you're always away for the action, but here for the finale?" He tapped his foot in mock annoyance, but the smile on his face spoke of his complete amusement in the situation. He didn't even seem annoyed at all - just happy to see his friend.

Mega Man smiled despite himself, rubbing the back of his helmet as he approached. "You know, it's funny. My older brother always says I'm late!"

The Sega Hedgehog laughed and held out a fist. "He still wearing that visor over the sunglasses like he thinks he's cool...? Good to see you, bro. It's been what, five months since I last saw you?"

In response to the held out fist, Mega Man connected his own. A bro fist was initiated between the two. "It's good to see you, too! It's been pretty hectic lately - Dr. Wily's been churning out the Robot Masters like they're on an express line!"

"Man, do I feel you." Sonic sighed as the two turned to look at the Mushroom Kingdom Castle as the fireworks burst over it. "It's almost like bad guys everywhere have amped up their game... Makes me worried of what's still to come."

The fireworks continued to launch. The Friendship Festival was still on.

* * *

_Authoress' Notes:_

Much like how Link can be found in the center of nearly every love triangle, Sonic can be found in many bromances. The guy has many buddies, friends, and best buds, but no one tops Tails. Still, he has many people that he cares about and will protect until his dying breath, and one of those people is going to be Mario, as you'll find out. Another two that he would do that for are Tails (obviously) and Mega Man (who he already knows and considers a bro). Mario is similar in that he cares deeply about many people that he meets, hence his breaking of his usual tradition of offering his first Friendship Coin to his brother, to giving it to Sonic instead this year.

Luigi doesn't mind anyway, the guy's got over twenty years' worth of First Friendship Coins from his brother.

_Interesting Info:  
• _Title comes from what Rosalina uses to refer to Peach when speaking with Mario in Super Mario Galaxy._  
• _I got more than a bit carried away with the dialogue between Rosalina, Outset, Blues and Ness in the beginning and I apologize incredibly for that. I don't, however, apologize for the slap at Ninten getting attacked by a desk lamp in the beginning of his adventure. Mother enemies are weird.  
• edit: Video game titles Blues references when he's discussing what happened in Capcom: _Phoenix Wright_, _Professor Layton_, and _Street Fighter. _He also mentions Dr. Light, his and Mega Man's creator, and Amaterasu, who we all met in Chapter 3 as the Head of Capcom. The circumstances involving Amaterasu and the Street Fighters setting a block on fire involves another game series brought up later by E. Gadd.  
• The Mushroom Kingdom Friendship Festival was invented for the purposes of this Fanfiction. It is not in any way shape or form a canonical festival that occurs in the game. If it is, then wow, I had no idea.  
• Mario's plumbing service number that Rosalina writes down (714-1983), is the _date _of the Mario Bros. arcade game release. (July 14, 1983)  
• Readers who know Blues' opinions of Dr. Light and Dr. Wily and their... ahem... _parenting _skills... need no explanation for his reaction to Rosalina's plan with Zelda and Outset with Hylia.  
• Compile Heart, working alongside Imagination Factory, is responsible for the _Hyperdimension Neptunia _series, which take place in Gamindustri. Hence, the name of the GPS system is _Gamindustri_ Positioning Scream. The one character in particular that helped E. Gadd with his creation is Vert, head of Leanbox, which is supposed to be the X-Box.  
• Samus' described events happen in chapter 7. Who are the bandits? Where are they from? Who's Fidel?! That will all be explained then.  
• I felt Mega Man needed to show up considering he hasn't even made an official appearance yet despite Rock being around so much in Vidchester. Proto Man even stole his thunder in the _Mega Man-_centric chapter as the main character.

_Reviews:_

AShinyBlueMew: Proxi will return again, no worries there! She won't appear in Vidchester, only in the Game World however. The fairies of Hyrule were protected by the Great Fairy when the Reset button went off, so that they kept their healing properties and database knowledge when everyone returned. While Proxi didn't cross over, one of Link's previous companions did... That particular friend of Link's is the principal of Blues' high school.

Paula-Ana: Blues and Link is surely a pairing that I want to play with again some time in the future, with some Proxi on the side for good measure. Thanks for your theories! We'll find out if you're right in your ideas. For sure, at least one of them will be challenged in the next chapter coming right up after this one, with the truth being determined in the upcoming Chapter 8. I can confirm that for the other theory, you are mostly correct, so no worries. However, I won't tell you which you are right with and which one you are wrong.


	6. 1x6 The Hero King

**EPISODE 1x6:**

**THE HERO KING**

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

"So there's going to be another episode today?" asked Rock as he, Ness and Outset left the school after a long day. "I'd be looking forward to it, but Tango came home yesterday and has been demanding everyone's love and affection and driving Blues crazy with all his meowing. He even ate up all our tuna supply."

Ness laughed before he started skipping down the stairs two at a time. "You guys really need to get your cat a leash!" He turned to look at his two friends brightly, walking backwards somewhat skillfully. "But yeah, expect a new episode today! It's what I'm going to be doing tonight! I'm so excited for it."

"Ness..." Outset began, about to reach out to stop him. "Watch where you're..."

"Oof!" Just as he had said it, Ness collided with someone.

"... going..."

"What exactly are you doing walking backwards?" came a voice, and Ness looked up to come face to face with a very annoyed looking Blues. "I'm pretty sure you're smarter than that. You're supposed to be watching where you're going. What if I was Principal Truthley, or worse, Principal Skylight, _your _principal?" With those words stated, he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Where would you be then?"

At the very idea of coming face to face with the high school principal or worse, his own, Ness gulped. "I'd be in a lot of trouble..."

"Yeah." Blues huffed.

"Blues!" Rock said cheerfully, wanting to break the ice and fix the tension that had risen between the four of them. He hopped up to his brother with a bright smile. "Off to work?"

"Oh yeah!" Outset chimed. "You work today, don't you?"

Blues simply gave a nod, but Rock went straight to business, wrapping a hand around his brother's arm as the four of them continued down the street. "What time are you going to be home?"

"Until 7 or 8, depending on if I get kicked out early or not," Blues commented, fixing his sunglasses with his free hand and giving the sky a glare. "Chances are I'll be early getting off. Wario wasn't exactly happy with my hands when I told him about what happened." He tilted his head then, a sly smile on his face. "Though I might have lied about how they got injured in the first place. Wouldn't be good if I told him it was from a fight."

"What'd you say?" Outset asked, curious.

"I might have come up with a really odd reason for me to break a window with my fists," he hand-waved. "It involved Rock and Tango, if I remember right." Rock blinked at the mention of him and their cat. "It doesn't matter. What matters is he bought it, and I didn't get fired."

"Yeah, that'd be pretty bad," Rock agreed. "Are you going to be okay? I wish I was old enough to work with you to help out."

Blues shrugged. "I'll be fine, Rock. I'm just on cash with Luigi and Owain helping me out right now since I can't lift the drink trays all that well." He gave a somewhat weak smile, and Outset found himself filled with worry for a moment. "We have a new kid too, anyways, since Wario wants Owain on grill and Luigi can do what he does best and sleep on shift."

"A new kid?" Ness asked, surprised. "But like, no one's been hired there in some time."

A stiff nod was the reply. "Yeah. She started yesterday. I don't recognize her so she must be from a _different_ part of town." Ness and Outset both blinked at his weird wording and tone. Outset realized shortly after that Blues was trying to say that he was pretty sure he didn't know her at all, and that she at least wasn't from Capcom originally. "Never heard the name 'Plutia' before, either."

Rock, meanwhile, grinned, having completely missed his brother's odd tone. He tightened his grip on his brother's arm as the four of them crossed the street. "Never heard of her, either. Maybe she's from the ritzy side of town. Her name is odd enough."

Blues snorted. "She certainly looks like it."

"Wow, Blues," Rock laughed. "Your snark is top percentage today!"

"Shut up, Rock," Blues stated, digging a palm into his brother's hair. Rock protested loudly, but Blues didn't relent one bit. "I wish so hard right now that I could give you a knuckle sandwich."

Ness immediately stepped up to the plate. "I can give him one for you!"

"What are you guys doing just wandering around here?" came a sudden voice. Everyone paused in their walk and turned to come face to face with Yu and Ai, Yu having been the one to have spoken. "There's a new game at the arcade, did you know?"

"What, is it Skee-Ball?" Ness asked. "If it's Skee-Ball, I'm so there. The old one got so busted they had to take it out!"

"Nah, I wish," Ai said with a sigh. "No, no, it's _Duck Hunt_, specifically made for our arcade! Mayor Handson had it made so that we all could play it without needing to get an old console, you know how much he loves the classics."

Blues traded a suspicious glance with Outset. "Well, that's interesting, but I have got to get going or I'll end up at work past my fifteen minute mark." He let go of Rock, giving him a nod. "Tell Roll I might need headache medication on top of that sleep medication I know she's going to try and drug me with."

"Plutia that bad?" Rock laughed.

The only response at first was a groan, before Blues added, "She's alright so far... But... No, it's Luigi. Lazy son of a..." Whatever he finished that sentence with, no one knew, as he had already walked off by then, giving them all a wave with a bandaged hand.

Rock laughed slightly to himself as the five of them watched him walk away. "Heh... that's my brother."

"He really doesn't seem to like his co-worker," Ai pointed out. "He always complains about Luigi."

"He mentioned something about him sometimes sleeping on shift, so it sounds like he deserves to get fired," Yu finished. He tilted his head in confusion for a moment. "Eh, what's it matter anyways? The two of us should head off to the arcade and try and get the high score on _Duck Hunt_."

"Ooooh!" Ai cooed. "Then we should target _Q-Bert_!"

"Ah, so true! We're only the last four on that one!"

Ai turned to the others with a big grin. "We're going to head off and deal with that, okay?"

"Sure!" Ness chirped.

"Good luck!" Outset added.

With a wave of her hand, Ai gave them a smug grin. "Oh, please. We're the best there is, and we're going to top the scores, we insist!" She laughed before grabbing hold of Yu's hand. "We'll see you tomorrow! Don't forget to read Chapter 12 of our text!" With that, the two were off toward 8-bit Arcade, laughing and gushing about being able to play _Duck Hunt_.

Rock gave a concerned chuckle. "Well... They may have told us to read the homework, but I doubt they're going to do it."

"Something tells me they're going to be there until closing," Outset added with a laugh of his own. "Yeesh, those two take their reputation on those machines really seriously, don't they?"

"'Yai' is a tag that's all over that arcade," Ness pointed out, as the three of them turned to begin heading home. "If it's not in the first place marker, it's somewhere in the top ten."

"Or completely dominates, like the Pac-Man machine," Rock finished. "Well!" He turned to an alley, where Ness and Outset could see Roll waiting on the other side. "This is my stop! See you guys later!" With that, Rock was gone, chasing after Roll who had started off again yelling about her brother taking his sweet time.

Immediately, Ness turned to Outset. "Do you have Samus' Journal on you? See if you can find 'Plutia'."

Outset threw off his backpack and pulled out the Journal from the outside pocket. "I don't recall the name, so I'm confused, too." He began to flip through it... "Nothing so far..." And then he paused, having read the name 'Marth Lowell'. "Oh... So that's who Mama has watching me tonight!"

"Huh? You have a different babysitter today?" Ness asked, looking at it over Outset's shoulder. "What about Reflet?"

"_Hobbit _and _Lord of the Rings_ marathon," Outset replied. "She and Robin had been planning it for weeks, apparently. She was telling me all about it yesterday..." He began to read the words, fascinated. "'The Hero King, Marth Lowell, had rallied his troops against Cia's forces...' Aw man, _Fire Emblem_! Just like Reflet! Sounds like he had a run in with Cia, too..."

"Maybe Plutia works for her," Ness figured. "There's no other reason I can think of as to why she'd start working at Fast Wario's _right after _Blues injured his hands. It stinks of something fishy, let me tell you, like fuzzy pickles left outside for too long."

Outset bit his lip, looking carefully at the words. "Plutia worries me, too. I wish Mama didn't have to work tonight. Maybe she knows who Plutia is."

"What's the book say about Marth?" Ness asked, suddenly curious. "I mean, I met him and everything, but most of what I know was hearsay from Impa."

"Well..."

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Tents scattered the countryside, soldiers rushing in and out as preparations were made. Samus Aran stepped along the man made path that separated each of the tents, Fox McCloud walking alongside her. Donned in her armour, she stood out among the crowd of Fire Emblem soldiers, just as the vulpine space hero stood out just for being a fox. Together, the two had arrived at the beck and call of Marth Lowell, who had requested Smasher allies for a problem with his lands. The Risen had arrived and were terrorizing the people, but that wasn't all. Word on the grapevine was that Cia from Legend of Zelda had been making her mark on the land with her army of Moblins and ReDeads.

"Samus!" came a voice, and she turned to the source, seeing Ike of the Greil Mercenaries stepping out of a tent. He looked as healthy as ever - if even more muscular than the last time she had seen him. "I'm glad you made it. You're just in time."

"**We came as soon as we heard the news,**" she explained, as she and Fox approached the tent. "**Zelda has word concerning the recent Dark Forces as well.**"

"And I'm bringing word from the Mushroom Kingdom," Fox added with a slight hop on his heel to get attention. "Though it mostly retains to recent Alloy activity."

"Good to hear," Ike voiced, allowing them to enter the tent. "Everyone will be glad to hear it, I assure you."

Waiting inside the tent was Marth Lowell himself, who was standing at a table with a map of the Fire Emblem realm on it. Standing with him was Chrom, Marth's distant cousin. Also with them was Ephraim, who was keeping out of the discussion of tactics that Marth and Chrom were having. It was him that perked up at Ike's sudden re-entrance, and he narrowed his eyes as the guests.

"... So, you made it," Ephraim spoke. At his voice, Marth and Chrom looked up and immediately silenced. "Have you heard about our little Marth cosplayer?"

"Oh, so there's other news aside from Cia making a nuisance of herself?" Fox asked. "Who's our mystery Marth?"

"No one knows," Chrom voiced. "But we've got people looking into it. The Feroxi are trying to track him down, but at the moment even they don't have much to spare. Plegian forces are making it through our land and targeting theirs."

"It doesn't help that brigands are everywhere trying to steal our supplies," Marth brought up as well with a sigh. From what Samus knew of both of them, they each had their own country of which to be concerned of. Marth was in charge of Altea, while Chrom had Ylisse, ruled by his older sister, Emmeryn. "Twice now, Chrom's little Feroxi swordsman has caught thieves ransacking our armory and gold supply."

Chrom gave a weak chuckle. "Lon'qu is getting annoyed."

"**Don't blame him,**" Samus voiced. "**Has he managed to take back what was stolen?**"

"But of course, some of things drenching in blood as a result," Ephraim brought up. "The guy knows how to kill people. One got away with a small Bullion, but aside from that, all weapons were recovered."

"At least they didn't run off with anything they could come back and kill you with," Fox pointed out with relief. "Let's not worry about the Marth cosplayer for now, anyways. Perhaps we should be discussing what we came here to discuss with you."

"**Zelda wishes to inform you that there has been a sudden wave of Dark Forces moving from _Legend of Zelda _to _Fire Emblem,_**" Samus informed then, pointing at a section of the map Ephraim had placed on the board. "**The forces appear to be under the rule of Cia, though we have noted that many of them are ones typically loyal to Ganondorf.**"

"So Cia is getting reinforcements," Ike stated, earning a sigh of exasperation from Ephraim and a scoff from Marth. "That is just _wonderful_."

Fox stepped up then and pulled up a holographic map of the Mushroom Kingdom. "Meanwhile, Peach has told me that they have noticed that Master Hand's experiments with the Wireframes and the Polygons have created a new form of creature - the Alloys, as I called them earlier. Master Hand obviously wishes to use these in the upcoming battle."

Marth put both hands on the table before him, clearly frustrated with the current turn of events. "This is not good at all. We're a pack of dogs facing off against an army of bears - how could we possibly change the tide of battle?" He put his head on his hands then, as Ephraim sighed and looked away from the table, clearly trying to think things through as well. "Is this all the Princesses desired to tell me? Is that all they have to offer?"

"**Zelda will also like you to know that if you require Hyrule's aid, she is willing to offer it,**" Samus mentioned.

Fox, however, frowned. "Peach didn't let me know if there was anything like that she'd be able to tell you. She just wanted me to let you know about the Alloys."

"The Mushroom Kingdom is strictly neutral in terms of war, last I checked," Chrom pointed out. "They don't have the kind of army that they'd need in war and battle. Even if she wanted to, Princess Peach doesn't have the resources to aid us in battle."

Marth groaned, sitting down and slamming his head on the table in the universal sign of frustration and annoyance. Samus looked away. She didn't blame him about the current problem - Cia was pressing into Fire Emblem like there was something she really wanted. And truthfully, there was. Zelda had pointed out that she was certain Cia demanded the titular object itself, hoping it could grant her the power that she needed in order to get what she wanted - power, prosperity, Hyrule, and Link.

"You know..." began Chrom, earning the attention of everyone present. "There are a couple friends of mine that might be able to help us out of this situation."

Marth stood up once more, gesturing to the map. "Then by all means, offer it. Cia is pressing into our land, and we have to prevent her from breaking in. It is our duty as the heroes of _Fire Emblem_."

"Having a few more brains on the case might aid us in keeping the casualties at a minimum," Ephraim decided, and he shared a concerned look with Ike. "This would be better for us, I think."

"I guess that means we all agree," Fox said with what appeared to be a smirk. "Go ahead, Chrom. Samus and I will wait here and try to come up with a few ideas of our very own."

Samus only nodded in agreement. Everyone moved their attention then to the board, the little figures representing them sprawled across the map in attempts of strategic movement. Cia's mark, on the far reaches of the land, sat on the very brink of the border between _Animal Crossing _and _Fire Emblem_, and looked menacing despite not matching her appearance in the least. The pressure was clearly there. The war was upon them.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Outset opened the door to find Marth waiting in the living room, reading a book. The awkward silence that rose as the two of them looked at each other was a little deafening and suffocating, but Outset gulped back his nervousness and attempted a smile. He'd rather his Mama be home, or Reflet be here, or even Blues, but clearly that had been impossible. Marth stood, and placed his book down where he had been sitting.

"Well, then," he voiced as he approached as calmly as he could. "I suppose I need to introduce myself. I'm your next door neighbour, Marth Lowell."

"My name's Outset Sirius!" Outset returned with a smile.

Marth gave a smile. "Your mother, as I'm sure you're aware, has to work late tonight so I'll be watching you." He put his hands in his pockets as he watched Outset put his backpack down and began to take his books out. "As I'm not sure what your regular babysitter does... what often is your schedule on late days for your mother?"

The request made Outset pause as he took out one of his textbooks. "Well, Reflet usually has me do my homework and then watch TV or play video games..."

At those words, Marth gave a nod, looking quite serious about the situation. His look was almost comical. He stood with a slightly awkward stance, crossing his arms across his chest, a frown on his face. He looked like he wanted to be stern, authoritative, but approachable. It made Outset almost want to laugh, but he knew that that wouldn't quite be the right approach to the situation. After a moment of silence, Marth finally uncrossed his arms and instead knelt down to Outset's level, giving a soft, kind smile.

"Then let's do that, then. Did you need any help with your homework at all?"

Outset gave a smile in response, looking down at the textbook in his hands. "I just have to read chapter 12 of this textbook and then I'm good to go!" He explained his words with a cheerful smile, indicating the bookmark he had placed in his textbook in order to remember his place. "I was thinking of playing some of my games afterwards, since I'm close to the next boss in _Earthbound_..."

Marth gave a curious look at Outset's words, then gave a smile. "_Earthbound_? That's quite an odd game for you to be playing. You own a Super Nintendo?"

A laugh at first was Outset's response. "Yeah. Mama collected old consoles and games when I was a baby and then I just started playing them when I was older."

With that, Outset wandered over to the kitchen table, textbook in hand, as Marth headed back to the couch he had been sitting on before, grabbing his book. He opened it and began to read again, leaving both of them reading their words with as much attention as they both could muster. A nice, quiet peace rose in the room, though for some reason, Marth couldn't help but think that peace was once a virtue and a gift for him in the past. It was an odd thought for him, as he wondered about the past as he knew it.

Growing up alongside Ike and Roy, the two of them his best friends throughout grade school and high school, though it was all a blur. He seemed to recall once pestering Caeda, the girl that he had a crush on for most of his life, though now she was following Roy around like a lost puppy. He had a cousin, Chrom, who was a single father with his young girl Luci. And she had a resemblance, he noticed, to a girl he didn't even remember his cousin ever being attracted to - Outset's most frequent babysitter.

In fact, when did he get custody of Pitwell and Darkwell? He couldn't even remember their parents that supposedly left them to him in their will. Something was wrong, and he knew that there was, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it.

And, elsewhere...

... Elsewhere, someone sipping tea stopped for a moment before placing the cup down on the saucer. A humming sound was made, a tune long since forgotten, but often remembered with happiness by those who did. "... I see."

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Chrom lead the way for Marth, Ike and Ephraim through the large amount of tents and gathering spots, towards a tent that appeared to look just like the rest. "My sister and I have trusted them this far," he was explaining. "For about a year they've been our main tacticians and the driving point of our victories."

"So you have two tacticians that you haven't told us about," Ike scoffed. "Typical that you would keep that to yourself despite all the trouble we've gone through to come up with battle plans that wouldn't get everyone killed."

"On the contrary," Chrom defended, "I've been getting their input. So they have been helping us all this time, you just didn't know it." He laughed then, opening up the tent flap and leading the others in. "I admit, I'm not much of a strategist."

The conversation was interrupted then, by a singular male voice. "No, you're really not. You always lose our chess battles."

The company turned to come to the sight of what appeared to be a pair of white-haired twins. The male was situated on the left side of the table before them, the female on the right. Both were incredibly focused, their attention directed towards what appeared to be a rather intense game of chess. Marth stepped forward so he was standing next to Chrom, amazed at the sight occurring before him, as the male twin moved to direct a piece, and looked up at his sister.

"Check," he stated.

His sister frowned, and redirected her piece. "Not check."

Her brother cursed.

"Now, now, Robin," Chrom chided. "Language!" He stepped up to the two of them and looked down at their board. At the sight of the five pieces left on it, he winced. "So, uh, who's winning?"

"At the moment, Robin's had the most Checks," commented the sister. "He's improved since our last chess match."

"Far easier now to get you when I know your new form of strategy," Robin complimented himself. "Reflet has gotten a tad bit more vicious and aggressive in her moves, however. I may have more Checks, but she has gotten the most pieces out of me."

Chrom gave each of them a sad smile, and they both lost their focus on the game, looking up at him with equally concerned expressions. "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask the two of you to stop your match. It's time to meet the others."

With that, the company moved back into the crowd, this time joined with Robin and Reflet. Marth led the way now to a singular open tent clearly meant for shade and small gatherings. Marth sat the group down at one of tables they had made, and gestured to a mountain range off into the distance.

"That's where Cia is going to be coming from," he told the group. "That's why I brought you here."

"That's quite the terrain to be battling on," Reflet commented. "Do we have any other wyvern riders aside from Cherche?" She turned her attention to her brother. "I suppose Sumia and Cordelia could flank her to aid her on the way up there to scout..."

"I don't feel comfortable with the idea of sending Cherche up there flanked by _Cordelia _and _Sumia_," Robin stressed, glancing at Chrom with an apologetic look.

Chrom winced.

"Is everything alright?" Everyone turned to see a girl standing there before the group next to a red-haired man. She almost appeared to be like a female Ephraim. "It seems you're all working on strategy... Is Cia coming sooner than expected?"

"Unfortunately Eirika..." Ephraim voiced, stepping up to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Do we have anyone we can use for a scout to see to the situation? We need some information regarding their numbers and their forces, but we can't seem to gather enough of a plan. All we know is she has a lot at her disposal, but we're not sure if she's using it all at once."

"If it's a scout you desire, milord, than allow me," stated the red-haired man. "I'll take a small gathering of knights and we'll travel up the side and see what we can get for you."

"Seth," Ike voiced up. "You're still wounded from the last fight, that's going to be a problem if you get caught."

At his words, Seth frowned. "I'm able to fight, Sir Ike. That's all that matters to me. I'll collect Forde and Kyle and we'll move up the mountain at the earliest convenience."

"I'd feel a bit better if you took Frederick with you as well," Chrom spoke up, approaching the situation. "See what you can gather and come straight back."

Seth bowed, and turned and left. As he was leaving the area, Lyn stepped up from outside, immediately approaching Marth with a look that spoke of her desire to make a point.

"Sir Marth," she voiced, her voice straight and firm. "Perhaps you should keep your Fox McCloud friend on a leash!" She gestured to a quarrel happening on the distance. It seemed that Panne and Fox had had a disagreement of some sort and both had resorted to violence to solve it. "Chrom's Taquel is going to cut off his head."

"Oh, Panne wouldn't do that," Reflet scoffed, at the same time Robin made a snorting noise.

"Mist will handle things," Ike pointed out, just as his sister was approaching the dispute. "Don't worry about it, Lyn. Everyone's got it covered."

Lyn nodded, definitely satisfied that it was being dealt with, and wandered off. Just as she had left, Samus returned, this time with her helmet off as she was holding a strange piece of paper that was marked with a wax seal. She marched straight up to Marth and held it out for him to take. Cautiously, the man did so, and opened up the message and blinked at it in surprise.

"... Roy is... unable to help us...?" His words came out in tremors and upset. "This is... This changes things. I had been under the impression that he would be gathering others to come and aid us, but..."

"As it happens," Samus began, fixing her grip on her helmet, "you might have to call for Princess Zelda's aid."

Marth nodded, understanding.

"Milords!" came a sudden voice, and everyone turned to see Frederick approaching on horseback, sided with Seth, Forde and Kyle. "I understand we have not been out that long, but we noticed that Cia's camp is missing. They are already on the move around the mountains and approaching us from the side."

"Those dastards," Chrom muttered under his breath. He turned to Samus and Marth. "I'm going to gather Lissa and the other Shepherds immediately. We're going to be under attack very soon."

"More than likely," Robin pointed out with his sister nodding understandably. "We'll help you gather the others." He turned to Frederick, tightening the grip on the Elthunder tome in his hands. "How many do you suppose there are, Frederick?"

The Great Knight paused for a moment, turning to the three Renais knights with him before turning back to the two tacticians. "We counted a large number of the Dark Forces of Hyrule, possibly three hundred of the Moblins and one hundred of the Bokoblins. I suspect, however, and assume, that Cia has a larger number of creatures in hiding elsewhere in the area."

"Frederick the Wary, always looking out for us!" Reflet giggled. "He's right though, we should operate as if she has a larger number behind her than it seems. Gather all our forces, and let's get ready for battle."

The others all nodded, Samus immediately putting on her helmet. She watched as Marth rushed off towards his wife Caeda immediately to get her to begin helping, and Ephraim tucked Eirika closer to him as they rushed off to gather their own forces, heading towards where a tent was rather oddly in flames, an orange haired man lecturing a purple haired girl nearby. She turned to get Fox from where he had been standing. It was time for them to get ready as well. Battle was upon them.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Rosalina was beginning to hate Mondays. She blinked at the computer screen, puzzled at the notes that Lute had made, before turning to her own hand printed ones. It seems they both had a different account of the local house fire, and now it was a matter of figuring out what was the truth...

"So, Rosalina," spoke Christian from the other side of the table. "Who'd you leave your son with?"

"Well, my regular babysitter was out..." she began, vaguely wondering how that movie marathon was going for Reflet and Robin, "... and Blues is unfortunately working tonight, so I had to go with a neighbour." She gave him an exasperated expression. "I really wish Blues didn't have to work."

"Yes, I suppose leaving your child with a stranger would be difficult to do," Christian commented. "From what you've told me, Outset quite likes Blues."

Rosalina gave a nod as she began typing once again. "He really does; I feel he looks up to him in a way." She frowned slightly as she paused and looked at Christian straight on. "I'm not sure how I feel about that... you and I both know how Blues feels about Hylia."

Christian gave a slight chuckle. "Yes, well... Who _doesn't _feel the same way about Hylia, really? Okay, maybe not to the extent of our dear friend Blues, but he has his reasons." He gave Rosalina a slight smile then that on the borderline between smirk and sneer. "One of them begins with the letter 'F' and ends with the letter 'L', and, if I recall, you took part in that event."

At those words, Rosalina winced. "To be honest, I wanted no part in what Hylia wished to do that day. I felt it was completely unnecessary. It didn't help that even Queen Mary was boasting about how it was ridiculous and unneeded and that for _once _someone should just be left alone in that family." When even Queen Mary felt the need to step up and tell Hylia where she could shove her prophecies and her sense of who was allowed to live freely in Hyrule and who needed to be forced to do what, it was a bad sign.

"Her and her _order _and her _ways of Hyrule_, hmm?" Christian mused. "The beginning of many of our problems, really. Goddess has issues."

"Blues wasn't particularly happy with what Hylia wanted me to do with Outset, either," Rosalina sighed, turning back to the screen. The words stared back, mocking her. She didn't feel like writing this particular article anymore. She wanted to go back to the Observatory, maybe show Outset the different planets of their universe. She wanted everything back the way it was. "I think the feeling of affection Outset has for Blues is mutual."

"Well, he is Link's son," Christian said cheerfully. "You and I both know those two were pretty good friends before." As he said this, he got up and marched over to the nearby concession stand he usually had on display for writers and workers. There was a water dispenser there, and a handful of small, paper cups. He grabbed one and began to get himself a little drink. "Oooh, did you get Link to look after Outset tonight? Oh how joyous that would be..."

"No," Rosalina admitted. "I'm not sure where Link is quite yet, so I went my next door neighbour." She turned to look at him curiously, wondering where he was going with this.

Christian looked thoughtful as he took a few sips of his water.

"I went with Marth."

As she announced this, Christian spat out of his water.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Seth had taken quite a few of the gathered knights and was rushing in from the left where there were archers. It was against Eirika and Ephraim's wishes, but Seth had insisted on taking part in the battle. Meanwhile, Cherche and the Pegasi Knights had taken to the skies almost immediately at Robin and Reflet's orders, swooping in from the right to attack those bearing swords and axes, as arrows were a flyer's greatest enemy according to the laws of Fire Emblem. The rest had all charged from the center, attacking with a fierceness none of them had ever used before. Fox was a great asset with his technological advantages against the people he was going up against, and Samus... Samus was far more advanced than he was, and was tearing up the entire lower right flank of Cia's forces.

As the fight continued, Marth took note of a strange game happening between Seth and Frederick. The two were counting, with adding a number each time they slayed one of the Dark Forces of Cia. At the antics of the two Knights, Marth chuckled and directed his attention to the incoming Bokoblin that thought it was wise to attack the Prince of Altea. One strike of the tip of the sword in his hands was enough to defeat the creature, and he carried on.

"Marth!" came Ike's voice, and Marth turned toward him as he attacked an incoming Moblin. "About Roy..."

"Roy has his own problems," Marth explained. "The edge of _Fire Emblem _that he is at, it's being attacked by _Advance Wars_. It seems we have a inner Nintendo War on our hands..."

"Perhaps Master Hand has something to do with it?" Ike figured, swinging his Ragnell at an enemy Marth didn't bother it identify. "I recall Mario saying something about Master Hand being able to possess Bowser to some extent..." He swung again and Marth swiftly moved to attack a creature coming at the two of them as they spoke. "The Hands are powerful... maybe they're trying to weaken us."

"It wouldn't be the first time they've tried to attack our lands," Marth revealed with a dramatic sigh. "But, Crazy Hand is not as... chaotic as his brother, surprisingly."

"The Original Twelve did something with Crazy, didn't they?" said Chrom as he came swooping in and attacking another creature. He was flanked by the two Tactician Twins, both of whom were armed with Elthunder tomes and... were those Levin Swords? Impressive. "Something about turning him over to our side or something."

"**It was surprisingly easy,**" commented an incoming Samus as she fired a shot at yet another creature. It was getting tiresome as now some of the felled were turning into Risen as well. "**Mario simply promised candy and something about a life-long subscription to some thing that Crazy Hand apparently held in higher regard than his own brother. It was ridiculous. There wasn't even a fight involved.**"

"Oh yeah, I remember that. Link and I thought it was hilarious," said Fox with an amused chuckle. It was starting to get crowded as they all formed a circle with each other, their weapons pointed at the enemies. "So, what's with the sudden large amount of zombies?"

"It's a _Fire Emblem _thing," Reflet explained. "They're called Risen."

"Basically aim for the head!" Robin finished. "They shouldn't be too, too hard..."

One side of the Risen was suddenly run over by a passing by Seth and Frederick yelling something about "151!" and "156!", which was followed by Miriel and Lon'qu (with Lissa in hand), racing after them, Elfire tome being used to its full power and the myrmidon slicing one of the Risen in half. On the other side of the group, Ephraim and Eirika were back to back, lance and rapier slashing and stabbing at all angles that the two could manage. To the left of them, Lyn had teamed up with Eirika's myrmidon, Joshua, and together they were attempting to lessen the amount of Risen suddenly popping up everywhere to the point they were completely surrounded. Lute and Artur were attacking enemy forces from somewhere in the back, and at some point, Marth was certain he had lost count of exactly how many people they had under their command.

"Well, this got crowded really fast, didn't it?" Marth commented, readying his blade. "This is getting quite annoying and I must say, it must be dealt with now."

Chrom looked around before turning to Reflet. "So, just in case you or I die tonight, I just..." His face, getting quite red, crunched up in slight despair. "That is... I mean..." He looked down at the ground, as everyone else, including Reflet and her brother Robin, watched in confusion. "I want to tell you in case this ends badly..."

"Oh Gods, Chrom," Reflet voiced, getting annoyed. "What is it?"

Finally, Chrom took in a large, animated draw of breath, and looked at Reflet straight in the eyes. "I'm in _love with **you.**_"

There was a pause on Reflet's end. "... Oh." Her absolute, deadpan and calm tone made everyone turn to her, directing their attention away from the blushing and panicked Chrom. Her expression was one of slight surprise, as if she hadn't even fully worked out what had just been said to her.

Robin threw his Elthunder tome on the ground and glared at the back of his sister's head. "REALLY?!"

Finally, Reflet's eyes widened. "_Oh!_" Her face turned just as red and she panicked as well. "I mean, oh! I see! That is... I... I-I love you, too!"

"**This is insane,**" Samus decided, and she powered up her arm cannon. "**Why we're all standing here watching this sicking love fest I'll never know, but I****'m blasting my way through these Risen and leaving all of you to your own devices.**" With that, she blasted a passage through the Risen for herself and walked away. "**Enjoy your live romance show.**"

Fox laughed.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Outset looked up from his video game when Marth arrived with some macaroni and cheese. Sitting cross-legged on a cushion before an old tube television, the sight must have been odd for Marth, who gave a slight laugh before setting the mac and cheese down before the boy, and sitting down next to him. He looked toward then screen when Outset turned his own attention back to it as he took in a forkful of noodles. There was Ness and Jeff about to approach a golden, ominous statue, intent on saving Paula and returning to the Monotoli building.

"I lost one of my friends and now I have to save her," Outset explained after he swallowed. "So it's just me and Jeff until we get back to her."

"That statue the bad guy?" Marth asked curiously. "I don't know why, but it just looks rather... disturbing."

"It's the Mani Mani Statue and so far it's been a pain in the butt," Outset answered. "I had to fight it before, too. It keeps popping up."

Marth narrowed his eyes after Outset had said that and for a moment, the young boy wondered if he had triggered something important. Ness had never mentioned the Statue to him before, most likely because he'd never asked, and he had never bothered to flip through Samus' words to see if it popped up in there, too. It might be something to look up, that was for sure. Maybe when he decided to look up Plutia, Blues' new co-worker. He wasn't sure what Samus would know about the statue, or if he should ask Ness, because as his Mama always said: "The Games aren't completely true to the story".

For a moment there was a silence as Outset moved the little sprite Ness on the screen up to the statue. As a fight sequence started up, Outset took a deep breath before deciding the commands as Marth watched in a slight fascination. A few turns later, and Outset took a little break to eat more of his mac and cheese.

"Why don't you use the PSI?" Marth offered as advice.

Outset considered it for a moment. "Yeah, there's an idea." He took one more bite of his mac and cheese before picking up the controller, letting it rest on _PK Rockin _for a moment before selecting the strongest one he had. A few long turns later and Outset had finished the battle, ending up victorious. "Hey, cool! Thanks for the advice."

"If there's one thing I remember about this game, you utilize PSI when you can," Marth laughed. "Though, I don't think I ever beat it..." He paused. "Actually, I barely remember playing it at all. I just seem to know a lot of advice for it."

"Do you play a lot of games, Mr. Lowell?" Outset asked curiously as he moved on to see see the scene with Everdred. "My Mama's really good at the Mario games."

Marth considered the question before giving a smile. "Well, I own a DS system. I've played a game the boys called 'Fire Emblem' on it. They said there were a few people who looked familiar in it. Can't say I disagree."

Outset frowned slightly. Knowing that was something he'd definitely have to tell his Mama once she got back from her late shift. If Marth and the Icarus boys were able to recognize the people from _Fire Emblem: Awakening _(potentially, after all that wasn't the only DS game for that series he was aware of), then the thought of the possibilities slightly unnerved him. What if Pitwell or Darkwell recognized each other from _Kid Icarus_, or Principal Skylight? What about the potential of Peach playing a _Mario _game and meeting Mr. Mario? Why hadn't Master Hand thought of this exactly?!

"I've played a _Fire Emblem_ game. I'm not very good at it though, so I only played it once," Outset decided to say. "Mama said I might be better when I'm older and wiser. I guess it's because it's a strategy game and I wasn't very good at moving my people around."

"Hmmm," Marth hummed. "I have to agree with your mother. It's definitely not a game for those who simply move characters around without thinking. There's a lot of thought you need to put into it."

There was another silence as the two watched the scene unfold, before Outset began to move Ness and Jeff off to the hotel to prepare for the upcoming storming of the Monotoli building. Marth frowned slightly as he thought about everything, as things came back to him, as he began to remember things he hadn't thought he'd forgotten.

And elsewhere...

Elsewhere, that same person with tea smiled softly into the drink. "Yes... Everything is working perfectly, except for that wild card..."

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Marth decided that Samus was scary. Very scary.

The man had seen the great Captain Falcon stand battle against hundreds of mooks from thousands of titles, and come out simply with a cracked helmet and bloody fists, immune to the fire that his renowned Falcon Punch erupted with. Samus was another game altogether, with weapons that far outbid the ones that Marth knew and respected, and as he watched the woman work her magic down the battlefield, he decided he respected her. With all the chaos behind him as Chrom and Reflet settled the matter that they had both had a crush on each other for Gods knew how long, Marth and Ike prepared for battle beside Robin and Fox.

The fight was long, tedious, but rather worth it. The sudden, unasked aid from Hyrule _did _help matters. Samus was dealing a lot of damage on her own, and Fox's assistance was paying off with Marth, Ike and Robin considering they had lost Chrom and Reflet. Though Cia's forces were powerful and gaining quite the aid from the Risen, they were no match for the conjoined forces of the heroes of Fire Emblem and Samus and Fox. Marth looked up to see Cia standing at the centerfold of her forces retreating, maskless, and glaring at him directly. Clearly, she knew he was the first Representative for the Smashers.

"Marth!" she called out in disdain. "You will pay for this against me!" She struck out a hand in anger, stabbing her arm to her side. "How dare you stand up against us in this fashion!"

Ike stepped up beside Marth with a roll of his eyes, resting his sword on his shoulder. "She's just mad she lost, let's be honest. Don't pay her any mind, Marth. She's just trying to provoke you so you'll do something stupid. You and I both know it."

Marth narrowed his eyes at Cia, before taking Ike's words to heart, and turning away back towards his men. Ike looked up at Cia as well, and followed after the Lord loyally. Both ignoring Cia's cries of anger at her retreating forces, and at the two giving her the cold shoulder, they stepped up to Princess Zelda, who had arrived during the fight in a rush of Hyrulean soldiers and captains. She stood there regally in a dress built for fighting, armored to the bone. He had been prepared to send a scout, but clearly she had known she'd have to come regardless.

"Princess Zelda," he said with a bow. "Thank you."

"Of course," she said with a smile, bowing in response. "You are our allies, of course we would offer our assistance when you need it."

Samus approached, alongside Fox, and Ike, and together they put their hands together. Four of the Smashers reunited.

"It's kind of what we do, you know?" Fox laughed.

"**With that said, I have suggestions for next Smashers,**" Samus began. "**Those tacticians of Chrom's are quite effective, when they're not having feelings of love confessed to them.**"

"They are," Marth agreed, ignoring Fox's snort and Zelda's open confusion. "I'll put in a good word for them next time I see Mario. He'll bring it up with Rosalina to voice to Hylia for certain."

"With that said," Ike began, "this opens up our eyes, for sure. Knowing that Cia has access to Fire Emblem Codes, such as the _Risen _is slightly... alarming. She's definitely getting help."

"Yeah..." Fox put a hand to his chin as he wondered, curious about all of this. "The question... is _who..._"

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

"So," began Robin, turning to his sister. With the battle finally over, everyone was getting in some relaxation before they started their march once again, and they all went their separate ways. "... You and Chrom? When were you going to tell me you had a crush on him all this time? I feel so hurt." He gave his sister just the expression he was hoping seemed pathetic and sad. He hadn't expected this kind of development. His sister and his best friend, hooking up in such a manner? Preposterous.

Reflet, meanwhile, huffed, uncrossing her arms and looking at him with a brave look. He found himself attempting to deflect a whack from her arm aimed for his side shortly afterward. "Shut up! I've seen the way you look at Cherche, so don't start on me and Chrom!"

He reeled back for a moment, clearly shocked that she had noticed at all, and then laughed. "Okay, fine, you got me - maybe I have a crush on Cherche."

"_Maybe?_" Whacks with an arm turned into thunks on the head with an Elthunder tome. "_MAYBE, Robin?!_"

Chrom, Marth and Ike, standing alongside Samus and Fox turned to the source of the angered cries and the yelps for help. Chrom laughed at the sight, startling everyone else who was figuring it was a problem. They watched in amazement as he simply turned and walked away, muttering, "Twins."

* * *

_Authoress' Notes:_

Basically what happened here is I played far too much _Awakening _recently. Which is odd, as Lucina actually doesn't even make an appearance here. Despite this chapter basically being Fire Emblem: Co-Starring Samus and Fox. I made myself feel better by remembering she does get to appear in Chapter 8, and will later make an appearance (alongside her parents!), in 10.

But, spoilers.

_Interesting Info:  
• _Blues doesn't recognize Plutia. Well of course he wouldn't - she originates from_ Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory_, which was made by Imagination Factory and Compile Heart._  
• _This entire chapter is basically Fire Emblem puking all over it (Though Lucina and her second gen friends don't get to be involved.). Not only are there _five _different Fire Emblem games represented by at least one character each, there's even back up characters from two of them making appearances, putting in their input, or getting mentioned.  
• I decided to **bold** Samus' dialogue when shes wearing her helmet, similar to how phone conversations and Master Hand's dialogue in the Game World are _italicized_. I felt it portrayed the way I imagine her voice sounding to everyone else better. Eventually I will go back and repair her dialogue in the the first chapter, but not right at this time.  
• Lute is the reason that Rosalina is working late. She's also the reason for that tent fire. _Oh, Lute.  
_• Christian (Crazy Hand) is Rosalina's ally. Note how casual they are in discussing things like Outset, Blues, and how Blues feels about Hylia, and the conversation Marth has with the others in the flashback sequence.  
• Chrom and Reflet had to be done. I'm sorry. I'm really, very sorry. But Reflet's response in the game when Chrom confesses is what sold me. And the fact that Lucina is a really good older sister to Morgan. And Morgan's just cute. And his meeting his father. The best.  
• The Mani Mani Statue is one of my favourite aspects of _Earthbound_. Expect, also, far more _Mother _series in this to celebrate the fact that _Earthbound 0 / Earthbound Beginnings_ got localized. _Finally.  
_• Outset is at that particular part of _Earthbound _because that's the part I'm at. Also because that part is featured later, planned for Chapter 20.  
• The Robins getting paired off with their potential spouses means what? _Morgan _and _Linfan _in the not-so-distant future. Look forward to Morgan making his appearance in Chapter 10!  
• On that end, typically I would pair Robin up with someone else, but Gerome sounds like an amazing older brother for Linfan. Reflet would have been paired with Gangrel if I were to include him, as he tries his best to be a meaningful father. He really does. But Lucina makes an amazing older sister for Morgan.  
• Samus and Captain Falcon are seriously the Chuck Norrises of _New Game: Press Start!_. Please recall Captain Falcon's "fight" with the Polygons mentioned in the last chapter.

_Reviews:_

AShinyBlueMew: Principal Truthley is _Midna_ Truthley! (launches fireworks to celebrate the reveal) She's BFF's with Principal Skylight (Palutena), and Zelda Harkinian. I am very sorry about Proxi and Navi not making appearances in Vidchester. But don't worry. They'll appear again someday (the again only applying to Proxi, as Navi hasn't made her appearance yet), and not just in flashbacks, of that I can assure you. Fi is another ball game... Stay tuned for the next chapter, as well as chapter 9.

CancerTurtle: Aw, crap, that is _so _my bad. I fixed up that notation at the end regarding what video game titles Blues references in the first part. Thanks so much for pointing that out! I would have sounded so dumb if I had left that there. Anyways, I am so glad that you think that this was awesome so far. I hope you still do. Concerning your words on Queen Mary... I can confirm that yes, she's one of the main instigators of the plot, and thus kind of _New Game: Press Start!_'s Rumpelstiltskin. She has similar motives as well, which does kind of help, I guess. But, an important thing I need to point out so you can play detective: Mary is not entirely to blame for the situation (obviously), but she's not the only one who benefited, not the only one who roped Master Hand into the trick, and not the only one with a motive for the Reset. I am now gesturing towards Chapters 7 and 9 dramatically.


	7. 1x7 Legend of a Princess

**EPISODE 1x7**

**THE LEGEND OF A PRINCESS**

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Impa stepped down the halls of Castle Hyrule, approaching the large, wooden doors that blocked the path to the outside and to the courtyard that led to Castle Town. Hanging off her back was the Giant's Knife, a massive blade of which only she had the skill to use. She was a tyrant in the Hyrulean army, the personal handmaiden and protector to the Princess Zelda. She took her role with a heavy loyalty, not taking anything lightly that could threaten the Princess. However, she approached the door with a light step. The guards had told her who waited on the other side.

The girl was no concern to Impa. She was a friend of Zelda.

Opening up the doors, Impa was greeted with the sight of the tiny Hylian, Fidel. Blonde hair just like her brother's was blocked by the small cap she wore, her clothes seemingly ready for the cold winter that was upon them.

"Fidel," Impa greeted. "Milady awaits you, please come inside."

Fidel skipped inside of the castle, spinning once to look at Impa directly. "My brother is already here? I am sorry that I wasn't here earlier, but the boys in the village wanted to play and they were bug-hunting." She gained a sheepish expression. "I couldn't pass it up."

Yes, if Impa recalled, Princess Zelda had stated that Link's sister had a... fascination for everything around her. "Yes. Link is with her at this moment. They are in the library, unless they have moved since I last checked on her highness." She patiently waited for the child to start heading down the hallway before following after. Though the girl was young, she had been here many times with her brother to attend the Princess' small tea sessions usually reserved for friends or family. As the Princess counted Link and his sister friends of the family, they were allowed to attend. "They have been awaiting your arrival."

The girl skipped along the hallway, stopping to admire paintings she had seen many times before, and dodging workers and maids that were racing along the rooms to their destinations. "Oh, wonderful! They're in the library! That's my favourite room in the castle, Lady Impa."

Impa gave a small smile as they reached the library and she opened the door for the small girl. "Yes, I remember. There are times when its hard to drag you out."

"Impa? Is that you?" Zelda looked up from the chess game she had been playing with Link, giving a smile the moment that she saw that Fidel had arrived. "Oh, and Fidel. Your brother told me you were playing with the boys in the village. What were you up to?"

"We were bug-hunting, milady," Fidel commented as she spun around the princess excitedly. "We didn't catch anything, though. But, we did see a Goddess Butterfly! Malo's brother wanted to catch it to bring it home, but Colin said it would be a bad idea."

"Nothing beats the forest fireflies in my opinion!" chimed Proxi, who had been sitting idly on the table until Fidel showed up. The small fairy excitedly darted up in front of Link's sister, and continued. "Don't you and Link still have a jar of them in your house? Your parents caught them, right?"

"Forest fireflies last for a long time, Proxi!" Fidel chirped, skipping over to a nearby book. "I read about them here, after Mother and Father found them. They can live for a very long time."

As Fidel and Proxi chattered away about fireflies, Zelda turned back to her chess game with a soft smile, looking up at Link. "It's a good thing she gets along so well with your sister, isn't it? Can you imagine if she didn't?"

Link gave a calm scoff. His unspoken words made Zelda smile. Yes, truthfully, if the fairy that he had been granted by Great Deku Tree upon his ascension to Hero of Hyrule, Hero of Time, Hero of Twilight, didn't get along with the sister his parents had gifted him, he would have calmly returned it and asked for another. It was a good thing Hylia had the foresight to realize that, if she had any part in that, that is. To be honest, Zelda wasn't sure if she did.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

If there was one thing about Christian that Rosalina didn't like, it was when he randomly showed up at her door in a tuxedo and demanded she find a babysitter. He then threw a dress at her that fit her perfectly and she didn't want to know how he got her measurements. On top of that, Reflet was unavailable because she was also going to this strange party she was forced to attend as Christian's date, as she was attending with her brother. And then, on top of _everything else_, Marth was also, strangely, unavailable.

Rosalina promised herself she was going to pay Blues triple what she usually paid Reflet. She was sure he only accepted because of how flustered she had looked. It was his day off and she immediately felt guilty just seeing his exasperated expression as she had rambled on about not having a babysitter and not being sure what to do about it. At least, in the end, Outset had a babysitter and it was someone she trusted with her life.

The party itself was relatively calm and slightly entertaining. For most of the beginning, she and Christian played 'Spot the Smasher' and began to make plans on who would be a good aid in case things went dark and escalated quickly. Smashers present at the party included Mario, who had waved cheerfully upon noticing Rosalina, Reflet, Palutena (if Rosalina's suspicions were correct), Bowser (possibly, with that hairdo), and Samus Aran. Christian also claimed to have spotted Roy in the bathroom with his girlfriend, and was adamant that Fox and Falco were present as well, but Rosalina saw no resemblance.

Truthfully, the magic of the Reset was a strange thing.

"It is odd," Christian had commented when she had brought it up. "Pit and Dark Pit without their wings, Pokemon and the animals being humans, the Lights not being robots - they had to be given souls, you know, in order to come here. If we ever return home they won't return as full on robots. They'll be cyborgs upon their return. And I doubt the change will be painless."

The idea of Blues and his siblings having to be in pain during the transition made Rosalina sick. "Is that the fail-safe, then, that Hylia had to put in, in order to appeal to Amaterasu?"

"It was either that or a Company War, Rosalina," Christian said with a small frown. "If I had to be honest, that's something I actually agree with Hylia on."

Rosalina played with the drink that Reflet had given her upon her arrival. It was relatively sweet, but she still wasn't sure what it was and was unwilling to try it. "I suppose it is something that I can back up. I just don't like the idea of a friend of mine being hurt."

"It's either that or rip out a soul, and let me tell you, that's not something easily done." When she looked up at him in surprise, he gave her a small smirk. "Not even Giygas was capable of something like that, and he's the very personification of evil and dark thoughts."

Rosalina visibly deflated. "I suppose there's nothing else then - it's a fact."

"I suggest just not telling him, otherwise he won't want to allow his siblings to return home, and you and I both know a little boy that would absolutely hate that idea."

Just the idea of Outset denying the option to return to his birthright made Rosalina upset, and she didn't want to hide information from Blues either. The fact that Christian was giving he these ideas disgusted her - especially the more and more she began to decide that it was an option. The worst part was, he was making sense. He knew how these things worked, and as the Left Hand, he knew how everyone thought. He was the chaos of the Right Hand's Order, but truthfully, he was more like the Order since his brother became more of the Chaos. It was strange how that worked. They either had to be one or the other, and the more Master Hand fell down to Chaos as he fought the Smashers, the more Crazy Hand rose to Order in order to balance it out.

They were a scale, after all.

"Oh," Christian suddenly commented, and Rosalina looked up at him. "Check out the woman at three o'clock. She's sitting over there chatting with what appears to be Midna, the Twilight Princess. Did you know she's the principal of the high school? How painful it must be for Blues to be in that building when she's having a bad day."

Rosalina looked over in curiousity to see a startling sight. At first, she only noticed the woman Christian had pointed out to be Midna. With her long red hair tied back in a braid, and her dark eyes, it couldn't have been any other woman. Especially her dress - of gothic inspiration - as it clearly held some indication of her Twilight Realm heritage despite the new setting. Rosalina didn't notice the woman she was talking to with slight laughter until the form of Bowser had stepped away when he had been called by someone on the other side of the room.

The new woman that was revealed gave Rosalina a start. Her blonde hair, also braided back, was long and decorated with hairclips reminiscent of her former heritage. Her ears no longer took to their point like Outset's still did, and her dress was a fine pink and her hands were gloved. She was clearly enjoying the company of Midna, but Christian gave Rosalina a slight push. Of course he would. This woman was important.

This woman was Princess Zelda, Outset's birth mother.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

With Link and Fidel's help, and Impa pretending to not notice, Princess Zelda was able to leave the castle and escape Castle Town to Link's family ranch some ways away in the nearby village. The family ranch had been built and owned by Link's parents before he had even been born, and manned and taken care of by their family and hired help from the village since. The ranch had come to be Zelda's secret place. It was a place where she could be herself with Link, a place that she didn't need to wear the crown that she usually held on her head.

Hence why it was now sitting down next to Fidel's beanie hat on the table. Today was a special occasion and she was glad that she could come to join them. Today, Link had some company.

"Okay, but explain to me how Dr. Light even made a boy - let alone, another one - without the need of needing a woman," began Prince Marth.

Proto Man crossed his arms and glared at Marth through his sunglasses. Mega Man looked to be very embarrassed. Today was the day that Link introduced her and Marth to two friends he had made on his travels to find the Keys to prove himself worry to her father, King Daphnes. He was still searching for them - especially since they were foreign to Nintendo and had to be found elsewhere, but he was making excellent progress and making friends along the way. It was definitely something that Zelda appreciated, especially since it meant good friends for Nintendo and Legend of Zelda.

Zelda had to decide that the two were very impressive. Both had taken off their helmets while they were inside Link's home, having placed them off to the side of the entrance alongside Proto Man's very obnoxiously large shield. They were very clearly made to resemble each other, with similar hair colours, though very distinct and different hair styles. While Proto Man's had been designed with what seemed to be a lightning bolt for inspiration, Rock's went up in nearly every direction away from his head. Rock's eyes were also a very bright blue, but unfortunately, Proto Man's glasses were simply too dark for Zelda to tell what colour his eyes were.

"They were built, Marth!" exclaimed Proxi, then, floating above the table near the lantern of the forest fireflies. "They are special. See, in Mega Man in Capcom, they're techno... technobli... technical... _very advanced _and can build things that can do amazing things!"

"I think you meant _technologically advanced_, Proxi!" Mega Man very helpfully provided, and the fairy bumped him on the head for his troubles. "Anyways, regardless, it's great to see you again, Link, Fidel, Proxi! And very nice to meet you, Princess Zelda and Prince Marth. We were in the neighbourhood and decided to stop by."

"Thanks for the warning," Proxi muttered, floating in between the two robots. "You didn't even give us a week to prepare! You gave us, like, one day!"

"Proxi!" Fidel then spoke up, reprimanding the fairy with a powerful voice. "Behave! It's a treat to have Mega Man and Proto Man here for visits, and you know it. I quite like having them visit. They're good company."

"We didn't expect to land ourselves here, you know," Proto Man voiced, reaching up to snag her, though he failed. "We were aiming to reach Metroid by tomorrow but we got halted by other things."

His words caused Zelda to perk at that. "Other things?"

"Dr. Light gave us a mission to attend to after Proto Man noticed something a little odd," Mega Man began to explain. "He suspects there might be a Leak going on."

"A Leak?" Prince Marth voiced. "We have been suspecting for some time that Cia might be up to no good, causing Leaks and getting into Codes in order to achieve her means. If there's Leaks occurring in places other than Nintendo, then that might be something to look into."

"We think we found one here in Legend of Zelda, up on the mountain," Proto Man pointed out then. "That's why we stopped here and decided to visit."

"We don't know the area and the idea of going up the mountain with little knowledge is kind of intimidating," Mega Man finished. "Especially with all the people talking about monsters up there."

Zelda stood up dramatically then. If someone was causing Leaks in her land, then she had to deal with that. "Then we'll help you out. It is only fair, since you discovered it in the first place and it's in our area."

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

"You're doing it wrong!" exclaimed Ness as he took the controller from Rock. "Seriously, haven't you ever played _Street Fighter_ before?!" Then, with accurate button mashing and a glorious display, the Light siblings and Outset were greeted with an absolute destruction of Ken by Ryu courtesy of Ness. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you _absolutely tool Ken._"

"Snap," Rock muttered. "How did you even...?!"

"Seriously, I thought you three were big fans of Capcom," Ness commented with a wink toward Outset, who laughed. "One would think you'd know how to play _Street Fighter_." He laughed before turning back to Outset's television and deciding to continue. "This is pretty cool, Outset. Your mom find this?"

Outset nodded as he munched on one of the chips Blues had set out. In preparation for tonight, Blues and Rosalina had quickly grabbed some chips and other snacks for the kids to munch on. The sudden dropping of Ness was unexpected, but Blues had taken it in stride and simply set down another bowl before deciding to crash on Outset's bed to watch the four kids play video games. It had taken three levels before Roll had decided to spectate instead since she had lost every time, so she had since joined him on the comforter. Now the two were paging through Rosalina's storybook out of mild curiousity. It was painful to watch just a little bit in terms of Blues, since he knew all the references, but Roll's eyes were blank and looking at things she didn't think she recognized.

She was just as far away as Rock was, and since Blues wanted to wake his siblings up badly, it was pretty upsetting.

"Where did she find this?" suddenly came Ness' loud voice, and Outset looked at him startled. "Did she find this in town?"

"Yeah," Outset said cheerfully. "Remember how I said she checks out places and looks at old games? Mr. Gaepora owns a pawn shop just by Marth's flower shop, and we wandered in there during the weekend. I got a whole bunch of new games to play with if you want to check them out! We got _Chrono Trigger_, um... one of the _Final Fantasy _games..."

Ness suddenly gained the look of a deprived gamer that was starving for new content. "Please tell me you got _Earthbound._"

Outset blinked. "Oh gosh, did I never tell you?"

Blues looked up, curious, as Roll overtook the book completely and actually began to read the stories, ignoring the boys. Rock glanced from the screen to the two boys with a slightly worried expression as Ness' crazed look fell and he gained a sudden look of realization.

Ness was close to grabbing Outset's shirt. "Tell me what?"

Outset gulped and contemplated hiding behind Blues for protection. "I... I already own _Earthbound_."

Just as Ness vaulted to attack Outset, he booked it to jump on his bed and hide behind Blues. The result ended in Roll ducking under a pillow and Rock getting into a corner as Ness landed on his stomach on the hardwood floor. Blues sighed dramatically as Outset grabbed hold of the back of his shirt. Ness rolled over so his back was to the floor and lifted a finger up to the ceiling.

He dramatically claimed, "Tell me where the gold is, you fiend, Outset!"

"_Hey,_" Blues voiced, crossing his arms. "Maybe it you actually checked where he keeps his games, you'd find it. There is absolutely no reason to jump-attack him over a game, even if it is one you..." At that, Blues paused, blinked, and quickly reworded his original sentence. "... that you _highly respect_."

Ness, after sticking his tongue out at Blues that caused him to nearly throw a pillow in retaliation, turned toward the basket he knew Outset typically kept his older games in. There, sitting loud and proud in between _Mega Man X _and _Legend of Zelda: __A Link to the Past_ was _Earthbound_. Holding it tightly in his hands, he raised it up to the sky, turned to the others, and declared:

"We're playing this!"

Rock immediately protested. "But it's only one player!"

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

With the horses packed and everyone dressed for the occasion, Zelda looked further up the road with a look of disdain. If someone was causing trouble in her realm, she preferred to know about it. It didn't help she could hear Fidel yammering away toward her older brother in the background, discussing everything that she set her eyes on and asking him a thousand questions about Snowpoint. It made sense that her dear friend had never brought his little sister to Snowpoint - it was a disaster zone of accidents, wolves, snows, and the rumoured yeti. It was only more dangerous knowing that someone might have been causing Leaks in the area, which meant enemies could be from other Companies altogether and attacking them.

Hadn't Mario mentioned Square Enix enemies finding their way into Super Mario?

"What kind of matter of monsters or creatures live up on Snowpoint?" Fidel asked, as she stumbled upon a Goddess Butterfly on a flower. Link grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her along with the rest of the group. "It's a mountain, so I imagine goats, but..."

"Wolves, Fidel!" Proxi voiced for Link. "Lots of wolves. There's also the rumors of the great Yetis!"

At that, Mega Man turned to look at both of them with an expression of bewilderment. "Yetis?"

"Yetis!" Proxi exclaimed cheerfully. "Oh, Link and I have heard so many stories of the Yetis that live up there!" She hovered between the two curious children with a brighter glow than normal. "Other fairies say there are two Yetis that live up there, named Yeta and Yeto! Legend has it that a previous Link, the Hero of Twilight, visited them and helped them with their problems, and they're madly in love!"

Mega Man gained a slightly disturbed expression. "How long ago was that, exactly...? They might be dead by now."

"Oh, please," Proxi handwaved. "Zelda characters such as Link and Zelda are always finding a way to be involved in the latest Legends and stories and games and stuff. No idea why I'm not named Navi, though, but that's probably because she's too busy being the new Queen of the Fairies herself."

"Wow, really?" Fidel voiced. "That's so cool!"

Proto Man groaned, as he walked in between Link and Marth. "Can you tell your fairy to stop feeding your sister and my brother false information?"

"Actually, she's not _entirely _wrong," Zelda pointed out with a slight giggle. "Navi was promoted. But not to Queen of the Fairies. She's a Great Fairy. Proxi just sometimes likes to stretch the truth when she finds herself entertaining Fidel. No worries - Fidel will look it up later and learn the truth."

"Would that not cause problems between Proxi and Fidel?" Marth asked with slight worry.

Zelda and Link shared a slight chuckle, before Link shook his head. The answer caused Marth and Proto Man to look at him in slight confusion before Zelda elaborated with a smile. "She knows why Proxi exaggerates, and sometimes she makes it more exciting than reality. Proxi loves to tell stories, and Fidel loves to listen to them."

Their moment was immediately halted by the sounds of laughter and fighting coming from overhead. The group halted at the sounds, with Link, Zelda, Marth, Proto Man and Mega Man immediately standing in front of Fidel protectively, protecting the little girl from the approaching bandits in foreign wear and bearing weapons not of Nintendo. The grins on the bandits' faces made the group frown, and Proto Man immediately put his shield in front of him.

"Just a heads up," Mega Man voiced, aiming his cannon at them. "I don't think any of us have ever been attacked by these guys before."

"I doubt they're even from Nintendo," Marth pointed out.

"No," Zelda realized. "They're from Bethesda, I recognize the style of clothing and the engravings on their weapons - they're evident of Skyrim, what I've been learning about recently."

"So it's true," Fidel whispered, standing directly behind her brother as he got in a defensive stance. "There is a Leak..."

"Stay behind us, Fidel!" Proxi hollered, hovering above the fighters. "We'll protect you!"

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Zelda was a nice coffee break partner. After much pushing from Christian, and him distracting Midna, she had sat down with Zelda to get to know her. Rosalina sipped quietly to herself as Zelda continued to speak about her job. It seemed that she was a guidance councilor at Knight High Academy, the secondary school in Vidchester, which explained why she had been chatting so familiarly with Midna earlier. She commented on how she liked to help her students, but remarked that many of them had egos the size of the town. Rosalina found herself giggling at that.

"It does sound like being a guidance councilor would be difficult," she remarked. "You can't do anything unless they come to you with the problem."

"Precisely." Zelda still had that air of regal royalty about her, something that struck with Rosalina. "Anyways, I've heard Reflet talking about you sometime ago. Are you a friend of hers?"

"She's my go-to babysitter in case I have to run and do some errands," Rosalina explained. "I have others in case she's unavailable, but after the shenanigans I had to go through this evening, it seems I need more back-up babysitters."

"There are a lot of students at my school that would be perfect for the job, you know. There's a girl named Lucina who frequently babysits this adorable little girl named Luci," Zelda explained rather cheerfully. "I would definitely recommend her in case your... back-ups for your back-ups fall through."

"Lucina," Rosalina voiced, remembering the exact person she was talking about. Lucina had been the reason behind a lot of happenings that led to the Reset in the first place. She had also been one of the people Ness met on his adventures. "I'll have to definitely look into that."

Zelda smiled as she took a sip of her own coffee. "Of course, you might have to look into other possibilities if Lucina can't make it. I have a few students who babysit... Now, though, what brings you to this party? I imagine you were invited by someone else, yes? Midna didn't have anyone to come with her, so she decided to ask me to join her. I figured there was nothing against it."

"My friend asked me to come along since he hadn't come up with anyone else for a date," Rosalina said cheerfully. "He showed up at my door with a dress and a sudden invitation just earlier today."

Zelda raised a single eyebrow. "That was some invitation. He didn't even give you much warning, did he? At least Midna gave me a week."

Rosalina shrugged. "I've gotten used to it, having him as a friend."

"I have a friend very much like that," Zelda giggled. "Have you had the opportunity to meet someone named Peach, yet? Goodness, I've been dragged into many things because of her. She hosts tea parties every Friday, and every Friday she changes the time, changes the theme, changes... everything, it seems. She's horribly indecisive."

At her words, Rosalina couldn't help but give a laugh. "It seems she is." Then she decided to get into business. "So, Zelda, I have a question. Do you know anyone named Link?"

"I believe there's a man that lives off Iwata Lake is named Link," Zelda admitted, stirring just a spoonful more of sugar into her coffee. "But I haven't really met him personally. I believe you'd have to talk to Midna about him before asking me, she knows far more people in town than I do, I admit. Her, or Polestar's principal, Palutena Skylight. She knows even more people than Midna."

Rosalina made a mental note. "I've heard that the lake is quite impressive, but I haven't visited it yet."

"I've only visited it a few times with Midna and Peach," Zelda explained with a smile. "Iwata is very clean and beautiful, the landscaping hasn't a flower out of place. There's a large number of fireflies that just hover right over the water plants... It's beautiful at night." She took a sip of her coffee before continuing. "I envy his job, but it's horribly lonely I imagine."

Midna approached then with a new coffee for herself, joined by Christian. "What are we talking about?" she asked with a smile.

* * *

_Game World_

* * *

Zelda decided, as she made to blast the bandits once more, that she didn't like them. She'd have to talk to the Jarls and the High King of Bethesda for this, because this was ridiculous. This was invasion into her land, looting things from ruins and homes that had no business being looted in to begin with, and not to mention a massive breach of security with the Companies. She'll have to bring this up with Hylia the next time she had council with her, as well. See if she could get a hold of Sheogorath. But, it would seem it wasn't just Hyrule. Her Triforce...

Mega Man, meanwhile, sighed and deactivated his Buster, turning to Proto Man with a look of annoyance. "So, you were right! Bethesda bandits _are _crossing into other companies' territory looking for something. That's Capcom, Konami_, _Sega, _and _Nintendo! And it's only been three days since we noticed!" He gave a weary look, his eyes losing their bright luster and appearing snowy like a television with bad reception. His words only confirmed what Zelda was feeling about this situation. "This is tiring... What do they want?!"

Proto Man gave no immediate reply.

"Brigands have targeted Sega and Konami?" Fidel voiced, her tone worried. "Bethesda is known for its powerful weapons and it's forging prowess. Not only are they able to forge weapons out of many materials, they are also capable of enchanting them with special capabilities." She turned to look at Princess Zelda, her expression falling from one of calmness to complete concern. "I read all about them in a book in your library, milady. We were lucky that none of these brigands had any enchanted weapons on them."

"I've heard of Bethesda - their brigands are typically tyrants and barbarians, attacking all that approach," Marth also made sure to point out.

"We'll have to be careful!" Proxi exclaimed, hovering between Proto Man and Link. "Fidel and Marth most likely know what they're talking about - Bethesda is big, very big! Who knows what they can bring next time."

"It's a breach of Company Security," Zelda commented. "A Leak like this is dangerous and can be damaging to our lands. I'll need to bring it up with the Jarls and Hylia to see to solving the issue immediately."

The Light robots shared a look for a moment before Mega Man crossed his arms. "I'm no expert, but I'm not an idiot like Bass. There's something that they're looking for and they're trying to find it. Whatever it is, they know it's not within Bethesda and it's in a different Company."

Marth put a hand to his chin, his other resting on the hilt of his Falchion. "It'd have to be something priceless unique to one land, not found anywhere else."

"They mentioned a Drive of some kind," Proto Man brought up. "They could be looking for that."

"Maybe they're looking for a hard drive, like the Gamepedia?" Proxi asked, trying to help as best she could. She got odd looks from Zelda, Marth and Fidel for her comment. "Or those fancy computers that Samus has on her airship! Maybe they're looking for a computer."

"Yeah, but Blues and I have a _hard drive _inside of our heads. To most people, it's pretty obvious we're robots. If that's not what they want, then what kind of Drive could they possibly be looking for?" Mega Man then gave his brother a curious look. "Why would they invade other Companies to find it, anyways? Who does that?" It seemed too risky - Company Wars had been enacted from situations very much like these.

"Only idiots," Proto Man replied.

"_Hold it...!_" came a voice from afar.

Mega Man blinked, and shared a confused look with Proto Man. "... What...?" He glanced right and left before turning to Proto Man. "You heard that, right? My processor is _not _virused and making me hear things that's not there?" Proto Man nodded. "Okay, good."

"... _Hold it, hold it, hold it!_"

"What is that?" Fidel asked, looking up at her brother.

Suddenly, a form came sweeping in at the group from the west, jogging _upwards_ the mountain and down the slope. "Stop right there!" The form slid right before Mega Man, grasping hold of him tightly and glaring at him with a crazed expression. Proto Man jolted back, immediately forming his Buster once again, as _Bass _of all people stood before him shaking Mega Man violently. "Hold it, _Hold it, **Hold it.**_"

"Bass?!" Mega Man managed to make out. "What are you-?!"

"YOU!" Bass screamed. "You called me an _idiot _didn't you?!"

"Well-" Mega Man began, before he paused. "How do you even know?!"

"SO YOU DID."

"Now wait a moment-!"

"Let's leave them be," Zelda commented with a smile, turning to Link, Fidel and Marth, as Proto Man and Mega Man dealt with Bass, "and head back to the castle. I think we've gained enough information on this matter."

Fidel gave a nod and a smile. "Does this mean I can raid your library for more information on Bethesda, Your Majesty?"

Zelda gave a small laugh, taking Fidel's free hand as she had already claimed her brother's right. "Whatever you wish to do, Fidel."

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

The party of two became a party of four.

"Lake Iwata!" Midna sighed adoringly. "Link does a wonderful job landscaping it. He has a hard job there every spring getting everything in order. And, in winter, he comes down to town and stays with his grandmother down near the main downtown street. She lives in that little house by the church and the postal office. She's his only living relative."

Zelda had not been kidding when she had commented that Midna would know more about Link. While Zelda had gushed about the lake and the beauty of it, Midna focused more on what Rosalina wanted to know: in other words, Link himself. As they talked about the lake and the main groundskeeper, Rosalina couldn't help but look down at her coffee, seeing her reflection in the liquid that she had been drinking for most of the party. There was a feeling deep down inside as she remembered the terms she had made with Hylia. _Wake Zelda as soon as you can. Reunite her with her son, give him to her right away. _And here she was, talking about Lake Iwata and Link with just the woman Hylia had wanted her to wake first. Already, that had been ruined with what she and Outset had managed to do so far.

First, Outset had unintentionally awakened Ness, followed by herself with Blues. Then, they had awakened Mario, and Marth himself had admitted that he had snapped out of it himself by spending time with Outset. It was certainly something else that the prince had managed to logic himself out of the Reset, and she wondered if anyone else was capable of it. She wanted to look into it, see if she could convince Zelda...

... but then she hesitated.

A feeling inside of her, a dark feeling that had been festering in her heart since the beginning of the task strengthened, and she found herself deciding something there and then. The words of a friend came up, and she realized that there was nothing she could do that could halt her feelings. Blues was right. She had been his mother for twelve years and nothing would stop that. The mother that had birthed him and given up that right - no matter how much that she didn't want to make that decision - and deserved, if Outset and she wished, to have moments with Outset... but to just give up the boy that she had raised and block all ties?

Blues was right.

"So Link lives up there all by himself?" came Christian's words then, snapping Rosalina out of her thoughts.

"How sad it must be," Zelda commented.

"Oh, he's not depressed or anything about being blocked off from society. The guy hates normal talk, thinks its useless," Midna laughed. "Good thing we both know sign language, otherwise I'd have to interpret everything based off a glare." She stopped at that in order to allow Christian to stop giggling into his drink. "I mean, he knows how to talk, but he doesn't do it very often. He's the quietest guy I know. If I had to pick a guy, it'd be Link." She snorted. "But I don't swing that way."

"No?" Rosalina voiced suddenly.

Midna smirked. "I have a wonderful partner, but she's out of town." The curiousity peaked, but Rosalina didn't press. "Such is the life of someone who would rather travel than be a teacher at her girlfriend's school."

The subject of conversation shifted from Lake Iwata, Link, and Midna's girlfriend to plans for the upcoming winter that was coming down on them. The discussions included Midna's desire to travel out of town to join her girlfriend, Zelda desiring to see her father out of the hospital, and Christian's extremely unlikely dream to be allowed to develop a massive sledding track down the main street. At his dramatic reveal on what he wanted his brother to let him do in the town, the girls all laughed at his words, thinking it was both outrageous and yet quite entertaining. When asked what she wanted to do for the upcoming winter, Rosalina just smiled, and said that she'd rather spend the season with her son and his friends.

* * *

_Vidchester_

* * *

Rosalina opened the door to her home to find Outset asleep on the couch, curled up on one side of it. He was using the armrest as a pillow and had clearly drooled just a tiny bit in the midst of his dreams. A blanket was strewn across him, clearly put there with care. Sleeping on the other side of the couch, also with blankets on top of them, were the Light twins, Roll's head resting on the armrest and Rock's resting on her side.

Blues was discovered in the kitchen, reading a book with a glass of orange juice. He looked up once he heard her entire the room, and saved his place to close the book. "He tried to stay awake to see you when you got home," he commented. "As you can see that went well."

With a smile on her face, she sat down across from him, watching him closely. His hands were beginning to heal quite well clearly - he no longer winced when he moved them, and the bandaging tape had been removed. "You won't believe who I met at the party."

Intrigued, Blues blinked. "Okay, I'll bite. Who'd you run into?"

"I met Zelda. _Princess _Zelda. She's your school's guidance councilor." With that said, and his suddenly rather worried expression being rather telling, Rosalina looked at her own hands, these hands that had now sinned beyond compare. "I decided to not wake her right away."

"Wait, so..." Blues grew quiet, before gulping slightly. "You... you betrayed Hylia..."

"You're right," Rosalina admitted. "I can't give him up like this... Not after all this time... I'd have to ease him into it. It'll have to be done eventually either way - or Hylia will kill me." She lowered her hands and placed them slightly on Blues'. "Will you help me with that? Easing him into it?"

Blues didn't even hesitate, and narrowed his eyes as he tightened his grip in her hands.

* * *

_Authoress' Notes_

This one was hard for me to write, mostly because of what happens in hindsight in regards to the past sequence. On another note: Yay! Link and Proto Man team up with the younger siblings and Zelda, Proxi and Marth! And cute little mentions and foreshadowing everywhere in the past sequence!

And Bass.

_Interesting Info:  
_• Link has a little sister and her name's not Aryll? Don't worry, there's plans for her. Look closely at her name and how her movements are described. She seems rather ballet-dancer-y or figure skater-y doesn't she? Not to mention, she doesn't live in Vidchester...  
• Please imagine multiple exclamation points following after most of Proxi's dialogue. She's very loud in this chapter. And, again, _I love writing for Proxi._  
• _Street Fighter _is commented on due to Ryu becoming DLC, so... He's now a Smasher here too. Gotta keep up with that DLC! (Which also means that Final Fantasy chapter is a go!) As a result, readjustments had to be made to the town census, and now there's a Ryu and Cloud in town. Prepare for Ryu's main flashback debut in Chapter 12, which will feature another fighting game that I know far more about. (I'll give you a hint: HERE'S JOHNNY...! is one of the silliest finish him moves ever.)  
• As you may have guessed based on Link, Proto Man and Proxi's interactions, and from Proxi's comment referencing the Gamepedia, the flashback takes place after Chapter 4's flashback. You should note however, that Link and Proxi also recognize Mega Man, who also recognizes them, and they don't require an introduction, and neither did _Fidel._  
• It is important to note that Rosalina makes the decision to not actively attempt to wake up Zelda, thanks in part to Blues' influence. His involvement with her decision won't go unnoticed...

_Reviews:_

Vivi: Pssst. You're my favourite, have a cookie.

XShinkuKikinX: That is _quite _the name you have there! I'm sorry that you were initially slightly confused about the way that I portrayed the backstory in Chapter 6, and also with Toon Link being referred to as "Outset" throughout most of the story. He will eventually gain the title of "Toon Link", but that will be when he becomes the true Hero that he needs to be - in other words, when all hell breaks loose and everyone's Awake. Also, I'm glad that you're also enjoying the one-shots in Choose Level! I'll be more than glad to write up your suggestion of one featuring both Links in the same chapter. Your idea sounds like it'll be fun to play with and I will most certainly enjoy writing it.


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